Gone
by punkydiva17
Summary: *Story Completed* Three months after she leaves, Grissom gets a call for help. Can he find her? Where did she go? Where has she been?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

He hadn't been the same since she left.

Everyone around the lab could sense him retreating back into himself, much like he had done once before, when his hearing had began to fade. But this was different. They were engaged. He loved her. She was the one thing that meant the most to him in the entire world, the one person who understood him, who accepted him.

And now she was gone.

The days seemed to drag. He wouldn't talk to anybody. Not even Catherine. He was pretty sure they wouldn't understand, and his duties as nightshift supervisor wouldn't allow him to bring his personal issues to work. Day after day, he now found himself walking sluggishly through the office as Conrad Ecklie strolled past him, that self-satisfied grin on his face.

She was everything he could ask for in a woman. Every night when he went home to his apartment, he'd stand at the counter and forget what he was doing. He'd think of her in the lab, he'd think of their engagement, the proposal, her kiss goodbye. Her letter, the one that told him she was leaving, was rested on the counter. Call it a sick fascination or preoccupation, but he read it daily since she had left. It all seemed so surreal; the woman he had been with for so long, the woman he had known and had trusted and had brought to his lab after Holly Gribbs had been murdered was gone. The love of his life was somewhere out there, doing what she needed to do.

Sara Sidle was a bleeding heart. He knew it. He had always tried to change that, because his heart would break with each case that ended unhappily. He would watch as she would stalk past him and wait in the car, with tears streaming down her face. It hurt him every time. He always longed to reach out to her, she seemed so alone, with so much that he didn't know about. And it was her past that made her leave. That, and maybe with a little bit of the Miniature Killer.

He had been so afraid for her when she had gone missing. And he knew he had shocked the team when he had come clean about his relationship with Sara. But she was everything to him, and the thought of her trapped under a car with death as a strong possibility...he may have had the reputation by some to be a man with no feeling, but the idea of attending Sara's funeral was too much for him to take.

Since she had left, the lab had been extra-nice to him. Except for Brass. He appreciated that. He wanted to keep it business as usual. Sara was gone, but crime was still happening, and murders and burglaries and other various crimes still needed to be solved. With Sara gone, he threw himself back into his work with excessive force.

Warrick Brown had tried talking to Grissom, relating Sara's abrupt departure with his divorce, but Grissom wasn't really listening. He politely thanked Warrick for his advice. He knew that time would heal everything, that the pain he felt, that raw, chest-wrenching pain, would fade eventually. But she would always be on his mind.

He knew Catherine Willows was bothered about him not confiding in her. They had such a close relationship, but this was something that he would have rather dealt with on his own.

When he punched out of work, and climbed into his midnight blue Chevy Tahoe, he always took a second to stare at his weathered eyes in the rearview mirror. Then he'd look at the passenger's side. But there was nobody there. And for all he knew, she would never be there again.

He knew her life had been hard. She had overcome so much. And he knew in order for her to be healthy, to be happy, she needed to go. But, selfishly, it hurt.

He punched out of work at around two in the morning. The air was crisp, cold, almost biting. He wondered what Sara was doing, if she was okay. It had been three months since she had left, and a day hadn't passed since she had left that he hadn't thought about her in some way, shape or form. He climbed into his Tahoe. He knew he would need some sleep to get through the next day. He and Catherine were working a burglary case. They had captured the suspect, but there were a couple court appearances and last minute paperwork to be filed. He decided to let Catherine do the trial; she understood. He knew the lab wanted to reach out to him, but he knew at this point, there wasn't really anything that they could do for him. He just needed time.

When he got home, he didn't bother to check his messages. He threw his coat over a chair and made his way to bed. He would have worked all night if sleep weren't so important. He smiled; recalling the time Sara had gone three weeks without a day off.

Every night since Sara had left, he had difficulty falling asleep. He'd lie in bed, staring at the empty pillow beside him, and he'd smile sadly at the glaring alarm clock on the nightstand. He'd watch the time click down until he eventually had to get up and go to work.

Tonight wasn't any different. By three-thirty, he was close to falling asleep. His thoughts had slowed down, his eyes were closing...

But the phone rang in the kitchen.

He debated on not answering it. But he was sure it could have been Brass. It could be an emergency. With a deep sigh, he pulled back the blankets and made his way out to the kitchen and answered the phone.

"Grissom."

"Gil."

Her voice.

"Sara?"

"Gil...I need you to help me."

"Sara, what's going on? Where are you?"

"I messed up really badly, Gil. Please help me."

"Sara, where are you?"

"I didn't mean to...I didn't mean it..." Her voice was racked with sobs.

"Sara, tell me where you are. I'll come get you...Sara?"

The phone went dead.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A.N.: Thank you all so much for your reviews. I'm really overwhelmed at how many I got for the first chapter alone. Thank you all. It means a lot. **_

**Chapter Two**

It was still dark when Gil Grissom set out on the drive to California. He wasn't sure she was there, but he'd give his life to search for her if he was sure he'd find her in the end. Something told her that she would be going home.

She had sounded so distant, so afraid on the phone. She had cried. He wondered what could be happening that would cause her fear. He longed to be there with her; to stroke her hair, tell her everything was going to be okay. His mind took him back to the day they found Sara in the desert after she had escaped the overturned vehicle. When she had been unresponsive. If she had died, he didn't know what he would have done. In that one moment, it was clear to him that she was everything, and he didn't want to live without her.

He remembered how warm her hand had felt in his as he sat in the helicopter with her, waiting for her to regain consciousness. She was still unresponsive. Even thinking about it so long after it had happened, Grissom still felt his chest tighten. It had been so close with Sara. He had never felt such relief when her eyelids fluttered open and focused on him. She had smiled at him. Even now, thinking about that moment, he struggled to keep the tears from burning behind his eyelids.

She was admirable. He could never deny that. And as he learned more and more about her, the more he realized that she was struggling. He wanted to reach out to her; he wanted to be there for her, but the more he tried, the more distant she became.

He remembered the night he went to her apartment after she had been suspended. Conrad had wanted to fire her. He had found her, alone, sipping on beer, listening to music. The image was heartwrenching. She had told him she was self-destructive. It was something she had told him in the letter. The more and more he heard it, the more and more he refused to believe it. She had told him about her mother, Laura. She had been so isolated, so vulnerable, and when she had started to cry, it was the saddest thing he had ever seen. He wished he knew how to help her through her issues; he wished that there were something he could have done sooner to prevent her from leaving. He had gone through every instance in his mind, searching desperately for anything that may have led to Sara leaving.

She had always been such a strong woman. But Natalie was the turning point. She knew how close she had been to death, and because Grissom had admitted to their relationship, she had been removed from the night shift. He was pretty sure she wasn't happy on swing shift, and she hated Conrad Ecklie, as did he, but he never thought in a million years she'd leave. After the proposal, he was almost certain that she would be there with him forever.

The drive to California was going to be a long one, he knew, but he was ready for the trip. He just wanted to bring her home. He wanted her to be with him, and he wanted to fill her life with the joy she had been so despicably robbed of in her childhood.

She had changed his world. She had become everything. He had his career, but he had Sara in both worlds. And her departure had left everybody stunned. Catherine had spotted the name tag in the trash. Ronnie had found Sara's old vest in her locker with the inscription "Good Luck" written on tape where her name tag used to be.

What hurt him the most was when he opened her locker and still saw the pictures of the two of them. He had taken the pictures home with him. It still hurt to see her in nothing but pictures, but with her phone call, he felt some renewed optimism. He just wanted to see her again.

He had thought about stopping at the lab to tell somebody he was leaving, but Sara had been so hysterical that he didn't want to waste a minute. If she was in trouble, he wanted to be her knight in shining armor, he wanted to show her that she didn't have to go it alone all the time. He wanted to reach out to her; he wanted her to reach out to the others.

He just wanted her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Catherine Willows became suspicious when she arrived at work the following day and couldn't find Grissom anywhere. His office was empty, the desks untouched with a pile of files cluttering the surface, cases he needed to sign off on, paperwork he needed to file to the bosses above him.

She had asked around to everybody she came into contact with; Hodges, Greg, Ronnie, Nick. Nobody had seen him. Catherine called his home. There was no answer. Her lips pursed into a narrow line. It wasn't like Gil Grissom to just not show up to work. But she knew that he had been acting differently since Sara left. She knew he was in pain, and it hurt her that she couldn't reach out to him. He just didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to talk about it. He and Sara had been through so much together, and Catherine found herself enraged at Sara for leaving the way she did. It wasn't rage at her directly; she knew that Sara had issues dealing with certain cases, and she needed out. As a friend of Grissom's, however; she thought he deserved better than a letter and leaving behind a locker full of pictures.

She wondered where he could be if he wasn't at home. She decided to try his cell phone. She couldn't help but feel worried for him. Since Sara had left, Grissom had been so ghost-like. It worried her. She had never seen him so shaken. But there was a lot she didn't know about him. When he had announced he was in a relationship with Sara, Catherine was speechless like everyone else in the lab; there wasn't really any indication that they were in a relationship. But she understood the pressure it put on Grissom, and had even felt sorry for them when Sara had to be switched to swing shift to avoid violating policy at Ecklie's behest. But since Sara's abduction by the Miniature Killer, she had become a different woman, and everyone around her could sense it. She had become isolated, desolate, and she appeared to be more apathetic and angry.

His cell phone rang. And rang. Just as she was about to hang up, she heard his voice crackle through with an exhausted, "Grissom."

"Gil, it's Catherine. Where are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Catherine. I've been called away to take care of some business for a few days so I'm going to leave you in charge."

"What? Gil, tell me what's going on!" Her tone was exasperated. "Please tell me what's happening. Are you okay?"

"She called, Catherine."

"Oh." Catherine knew who he was talking about. She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice. "Why?"

"I think she might be in trouble, Catherine. I don't even know where she is."

She knew better than to ask why he was going. Since she had left, it had become painfully obvious that he needed time off. But she questioned his judgment; she had never known him to take off and chase somebody. After the way Sara had left the lab, Catherine had found herself slightly upset with Sara Sidle. She knew that this was something he needed to do, however, that it could provide him with the closure he so desperately needed.

"Are you going to be all right, Gil?"

"Yeah. I'm going to start in Tamales Bay and work my way to San Francisco. I'll be back in a couple of days."

"Okay, Gil. If you need anything, call us, okay?"

"Okay, Catherine. I'll call you in a couple days and let you know what's happening."

"All right. Talk to you later, Gil."

"Bye, Cath." She hung up her cell phone as Nick strolled by.

"Hey, Catherine, you seen Grissom anywhere?"

"No. And we're not going to for a couple of days." She paused. "Sara called Grissom."

"Are you serious?" Nick couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice; he and Sara had been close like siblings. "How has she been? Where is she?"

"We don't know. Grissom said he thinks she might be in trouble."

Nick took a deep breath. "Are you kidding? She's only been gone for three months."

"I don't know much, Nick. All I know is that Grissom is going to go find her."

"Can you believe this? I've never seen Grissom like this."

"Love will do that to some people, I guess," Catherine mused, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "For now, I need to know how your case is doing, in case the sheriff comes to me for a progress report." Nick and Warrick were working on a case involving a showgirl who seemingly died of a drug overdose backstage at a show. The case had become very high-profile, and Grissom had overlooked Catherine on this one, placing the case on the two male CSIs. Catherine had been upset, but she knew that she had handled some very high-profile cases in her career, and knew it was better to let Warrick and Nick take some of them.

"Warrick and I have some leads that may show that she didn't just die from a drug overdose."

"Any suspects?"

"Warrick's running a couple background checks on some of the girls and the workers, but until then, we've got nothing more than a hunch." Catherine nodded and began to walk away from the trace lab.

"Catherine?"

She stopped and turned to Nick. "Yeah?"

"What do you think happened to Sara?"

"I don't know. But if she's in trouble, let's hope Grissom finds her in time." Nick nodded and made his way towards the trace lab.

Catherine leaned against the doorway to Grissom's office. After three months, she wondered why she would reappear in Grissom's life, after the pain and heartache she had caused him. With a deep breath, she moved into Grissom's office and began to look over the files. She needed to assign cases to Ronnie and Greg. With Grissom gone, she needed to run a tight ship. She only hoped he would be able to find the answers he was looking for.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Tamales Bay, California, was an hour and a half outside of San Fransisco, a small town on a peninsula. Gil Grissom arrived late afternoon, exhausted from the drive and slightly hungry. The fact that he was there, that Sara could be close by was enough to give him a second wind on the drive, to keep him awake.

He wondered if Sara would return to Tamales Bay. She could be anywhere in the world, she hadn't told him where, but he hoped she would go home to bury her ghosts. She had suffered so much trauma, and the harder she tried to remain unaffected, the harder the realizations and the memories hit her. He could hold her for a million years, stroking her hair, telling her everything was all right, but until she could resolve her issues and put it behind her, they were nothing but words, nothing but shallow comfort for somebody who still had to live through the pain.

He pulled into a gas station at around one o'clock. There was a young man in navy blue coveralls and an oil smudged Texaco hat filling up another car. Grissom got out of the car and slammed the door shut. He needed some coffee. It probably tasted like motor oil, but he hoped the caffeine would help him on the long journey ahead.

The inside of the station, an independently owned place, made Grissom feel like he needed a tetanus shot just staring at it. The place was dusty, dingy and dirty, no better looking than the outside. It reminded him vaguely of his time in Jackpot, Nevada.

"Can I help you?" a voice drawled slightly. Grissom snapped out of his reverie and turned to see a man with greased back hair smiling sickly at him. Grissom couldn't believe the image. The entire place had seemed so surreal, so _Texas Chainsaw Massacre-_esque. "You seem lost."

"Yeah, I am. I'm looking for somebody, and I wanted to know if you've seen her at all." Grissom reached for his wallet and produced the picture of himself and Sara he had kept in there since they had gotten together. "Her name's Sara. She's my fiancee. I think she may be in trouble, and she could use some help."

The man took the photo and examined it carefully. "Ah, yeah, I've seen her," he replied. Grissom's face lit up with the revelation.

"You have? Where is she?"

"She passed through her a few days ago. Looked real worse for the wear. She was real disheveled, covered in blood. Looked like she'd been in a car wreck or somethin'. Not sure. Mitch out there saw her walking along the side of the road. Said it was a creepy sight."

"Can I talk to him? Maybe he spoke to her."

"Yeah, sure. Go for it." He went to the side window behind the counter and leaned out the window. "Mitch!" he bellowed. "Git in here. We got someone who needs to talk to ya."

Grissom stared out of the glass doors, as Mitch wiped his hands on a dirty rag close to the gas pumps and made his way into the store.

"Yeah, Boss?" he asked.

"You remember that girl you saw a little while back? The one who was all bashed up?"

"Yeah."

"This is her fiancee. He's come looking for her." Mitch turned his attention to Mitch.

"Gil Grissom. I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I need you to tell me how long ago it was that you saw her."

"Oh, Lord, it could have been a week to a week and a half ago. She was real beat up. Are you sure it's who you're looking for?" Grissom handed Mitch the picture. "Yeah, it is. The only thing that I can tell you, sir, is to check the police station. Maybe somebody reported her missing. Family or something."

"She doesn't have any family out here," he answered. It was the truth; her mother was in San Fransisco, and her father was dead. As far as he knew, Sara had no brothers and sisters, at least none that she ever talked about.

"Maybe someone picked her up and took her to the hospital. She looked real beat up. Real bad."

Grissom exhaled, of slight relief that she was in the area, but of frustration that nobody had been able to provide him with a location to her whereabouts. He slid the picture back into his wallet. "Thank you so much for your help," he replied, his energy renewed.

He left without getting anything, forgetting his coffee. He noticed a missed call alert on his cell phone. It was Catherine. He quickly dialed her, bursting with excitement at the news that he would be able to find Sara in California.

Catherine answered the phone. "Gil?"

"Catherine, what's up?"

"Ecklie's been asking for you. Did you even tell him you were taking this sabbatical?" Grissom was silent. "I told him you were working a case out of town."

"Thanks, Catherine."

"Have you found her yet?"

"No, but I'm in the right place. Two guys just told me that Sara had passed through here a while ago." His tone didn't have a lot of enthusiasm.

"Why am I sensing something bad, Gil?"

"They said she was real beat up. I'm off to check the hospital and the police station." He sighed. "What if she moved on from me, Catherine?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Gil. After three months?" Catherine sighed. "She needs your help. Find her. Get some answers. You deserve that much." He nodded, taking a deep breath. "Call me when you find her, Gil."

"I will, Cath. Thanks for covering for me."

"Don't mention it. Bye, Gil." She hung up the phone. He smiled, wondering where he'd be without a friend like Catherine. She always had his back.

Starting the car, he peeled out of the gas station, on his way to the hospital to see if Sara was there, recovering from the unknown injuries he had just been informed about. He hoped it was nothing serious. He had a renewed hope in seeing her, and he wondered if her talk on the phone was just delirious talk from sedatives. Maybe she wasn't in trouble. Maybe it was a drugged-up form of drunk-dialing. He was unsure. The only thing he knew was that she had called him for help and to help her, he was ready to travel to the ends of the earth.

Anything for Sara.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

The hospital was little, on the outskirts of Tamales Bay. Grissom had trouble finding it, and had to stop for directions. The people he had stopped on the streets had not seen Sara, and had no clue who she was. But they had been nice enough to direct him to the hospital.

It wasn't a very big hospital. A dual-floored building for a small town. He stopped the car in the parking lot and took a few minutes to regain his composure. He didn't know how she was going to look, and he didn't want to cry. He didn't know what condition she could be in when he saw her, and he wanted to contain his excitement at the prospect of seeing Sara again. The days had dragged by so slowly in the last three months, and by some weird reversal of fortune, the time had dwindled down to this moment. When he would see her again.

With a deep breath, he got out of his vehicle and slammed the door shut. His breathing was unusually ragged at the idea of seeing her. He made his way up the front steps, opening the doors and entering the hospital.

The reception area was small, cluttered with one desk, where a middle-aged woman sat, a phone perched on one corner, a neat stack of paperwork on the other. There was a door several feet behind her, and he assumed it led to the beds.

The woman was small, stout, with big glasses and a big red fake pearl necklace, talking on the phone. She eyed Grissom wearily as she spoke. When she finally hung up, her magnified brown eyes turned to Grissom. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah," he replied, approaching her. "I'm Gil Grissom. I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I'm here searching for somebody."

"You've sure come a ways," she answered. "How may I help you?"

"Well, I stopped by the gas station on the outskirts here, and two guys there told me that they had seen this woman walking down the road in very rough condition. I wanted to see if she was at your hospital."

"Her name?"

"Sara Sidle."

The woman punched the keys into the computer. After several seconds she turned her gaze to him. "Nobody here under that name."

"Are you serious?" he inquired. She nodded. "Are there any other hospitals here?"

She shook her head. "Nope." Her face softened as she saw the look of despair cross his face. "I'll tell you what. I'll bring down one of our doctors and we'll see if she's here under a different name." Grissom nodded. She got on the phone and paged a Dr. Adams. Within minutes, he was downstairs, a tall, greying doctor.

"What is it, Irma?" he asked.

"This man is looking for a woman named Sara Sidle. He's pretty sure she's here, but there's no record of her being here. Do you think we have her under a different name, like a Jane Doe maybe?"

"Maybe." He turned his gaze to Grissom. "Do you have a photo of this woman?"

"Yeah." Grissom pulled the photo out of his wallet. "I received a call for help from her, and I heard she's in pretty bad shape. If you guys have seen her or could lead me in her direction, I would really appreciate it."

The doctor and Irma looked at the photograph. "Doesn't she look like the one who they say killed Old Merle?"

"What?" Grissom's ears were unable to process what he had just heard. Sara...murder...

"Yeah. I think that's her," Dr. Adams replied, handing him back the photo. "Yup. She was here a while ago. But once she got better, the cops came for her. Said she killed Merle. He was real old, a Korean war veteran."

"Murder...are we talking about the same girl? This woman used to be a criminalist."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I'd go talk to the police department. They're probably more helpful than we can be."

"What injuries did she have?"

"There didn't really appear to be," he replied, "Although she was coated in blood. She did, however, appear to be in shock and we kept her here overnight for observation. She did appear to have several cuts and abrasions, but she had no real life-threatening injuries."

"Thank you for your help. Could you provide me with the directions to the police department?"

"Of course. You drive straight up the road, make a left. It's down by Coil's Cafe. Several yards away, as a matter of fact."

"Okay. Thank you." He shook hands with Dr. Adams and left the hospital. When he got back in his car, he stopped for a few minutes to take in the news. Sara, involved in a murder? The thought was too much.

His mind went back to their conversations. To her repeated claims of being self-destructive, to her questions about having a murder gene. He shook his head at his thoughts. It wasn't possible. He knew Sara. He knew that she couldn't take a life. He knew that she was being set up. He now had a case to solve.

He contemplated calling for help. Who should he call, Catherine? Warrick? Nick? He knew that Sara would need more forensic help than he could offer on this case. But he would see to it she gathered all the answers she needed, and that she would be cleared out of any wrongdoing. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Catherine.

She didn't answer right away. He supposed she was out on assignment. He called her cell phone. After several minutes of ringing, Catherine answered. "Willows."

"Catherine, it's me. Where are you?"

"I'm on my way to the lab. What's going on?"

"It seems like we've hit a snag. Sara seems to be in real trouble. I think I could use somebody down here."

"You want me to send you somebody?"

"Can you?"

"Can you explain to me what's going on?"

"It seems like Sara's been implicated in a murder."

"You're kidding."

"I wish. Catherine..."

"I'll send somebody to you right away. Where are you staying?"

"I saw a Bed and Breakfast down the road. It's a big house with chipping blue paint. I'll probably be there." For the first time, he realized just how tired he really was. "Thanks, Catherine."

"Don't worry about it, Gil. Just find her. I'll have someone out to you by morning. Rest up, okay?"

"Okay, Catherine. Talk to you later." He hung up the phone. Starting the vehicle, he peeled back and drove away, making his way towards the local jail.

He spotted Coil's Cafe down the road and he realized he was close. He wondered what turn Sara's life had taken for her to be implicated in a murder. He knew she was innocent. He would help her fight for her freedom.

He pulled into the parking lot of the police station and wondered if this was where his search ended. Despite the fact that it was the community jail, he hoped his search for Sara was over.

He made his way up the stairs and into the jail. Several of the officers were seated at their desks, reading over case files.

One of the officers looked up at Grissom. "Hey, there. Can we help you?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm Gil Grissom with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I was just at the hospital and they told me that somebody I'm looking for may be here. Would you be able to help me?"

"Yeah, sure. Who are you looking for?"

"Her name is Sara."

He looked through the list. "Ramone or Sidle?"

"Sidle." His tone was shocked. "She's here?"

"Yeah. Follow me."


	6. Chapter 6

_**A.N.: Thought I'd drive you guys a little bit crazy. Next chapter will be the reunion. Thanks for all your patience.**_

**Chapter Six**

Catherine Willows entered the lab. Her mind was racing with the information Grissom had told her. She couldn't believe the turn Sara's life must have taken. Grissom had seemed surprised, and slightly devastated by the news.

She contemplated who she would send to Tamales Bay for Gil. Greg? She couldn't. He was working on a tough case with Ronnie and she still needed some help in some areas. Warrick? No, she didn't think a vacation would do him any good. She definitely couldn't go; she was in charge until Grissom solved this problem and came back to Las Vegas.

That only left Nick.

She found the team in the breakroom, eating dinner together with Captain Jim Brass. She entered and they all looked up. "Okay, guys, I hate to do this, but Nick, I need to pull you off the showgirl case for a couple days. Warrick, are you cool with that?"

Warrick's face burrowed in curiosity. "Yeah. But what's going on, Cath?"

She paused, contemplating the answer, took a deep breath, and let it all out in the open. "Sara called Grissom last night, as you guys probably know. Grissom went off to Tamales Bay to be with her.

"Anyway, it appears she is in major trouble. Grissom said something that she may have been implicated in a murder out there. He's asked for some forensic help, and I'm going to send Nick out there."

"Isn't that out of our jurisdiction?" Brass inquired.

"It was when Warrick went to help you with Ellie," Catherine reminded him. He nodded and went back to eating. "Grissom is probably exhausted and staying at a bed and breakfast in Tamales Bay. Since it's such a small town, you should be able to find it no issue. But if not, call Grissom."

"When do I leave?" Nick inquired.

"As soon as possible, Nick. He needs your help." Nick nodded. He finished his food and got everything together.

"You're gonna be okay on this, bro?" he asked Warrick. He nodded.

"Yeah. Go give Grissom a hand." They slapped hands and Nick left, thanking Catherine for the opportunity.

After he left, Catherine took a seat at the lab with the rest of the team. "So what all did Gris tell you?" Warrick asked.

"Not much. I don't think he has that much information himself."

"Why did she call him?" Greg asked. "I mean, hasn't she done enough leaving him the way she did?"

"She's in trouble, Greg," Catherine answered, her tone slightly stern – although she had had the thought herself, "And I guess she's calling the one person she knows she can trust."

"Does he think she's going to come back?" Brass asked. "I mean, she obviously left for a reason."

"I don't know what he's expecting, Jim," Catherine answered. "But he needs the closure. He deserves some answers."

He nodded. "Let's hope he can help her."

"I don't think Sara could do what she's accused of," Warrick replied. "I don't think Sara Sidle could ever take a life."

"I don't know," Catherine replied. "She hasn't been the same since she got trapped out in the desert. But, I agree with you. Murder and Sara don't seem right. But if anyone can solve it, it'll be Grissom."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Sara was seated against the wall, her head in her knees, her arms wrapped around. She was trying to piece together the events. She wondered where her life had suddenly gone wrong.

She had left Las Vegas thinking that she would be able to bury her ghosts. But once she came back to Tamales Bay, things had worked out differently. Despite the fact that she had left her job, her fiance, and any future she may have had with Gil Grissom in order to find her answers, she still couldn't bury her ghosts.

Damn Hannah West, her mind thought bitterly. That fourteen year-old manipulative genius had crushed whatever feeling she had left for her occupation, had left her feeling cold and calloused towards everything she held dear. She knew she had to leave. She couldn't handle seeing death and crime everyday, and with Hannah, she realized that she could no longer stand by idly and watch as the criminals slipped through her fingers. She knew that her vulnerability was a liability. But above all else, she knew that her heart was no longer in the job.

She had kissed Grissom goodbye, and with cold, painstaking calculation, she had walked out of his life. She had hoped that she wouldn't see him again, that the pain she had caused him would ease with her absence. But when she had been arrested at the hospital, she knew that he was the only one who could help her. She just hoped that he would be able to save her.

The power had gone out when she called him. She couldn't believe her luck. But she should have known better. She could see the storm coming on the peninsula, and it had been a rough one. The storm had knocked out the power for hours, knocking down several powerlines and tipping over several fences and small trees. Upon the phone going dead, she had been escorted back to her cell, where she laid on her bunk and stared up at the ceiling, crying, wondering if she would ever be cleared of this crime.

"Sidle – visitor!"

Sara looked up, bewildered at the prospect of having a visitor. Her family was no longer in Tamales Bay; her mother was in San Fransisco, and there was pretty much no way for her mother to come see her. She stared at the officer as he opened the cell and moved aside.

Her breath caught as Gil Grissom walked past the officer and into the cell. The officer closed the cell and left to give them privacy for their visit.

She stood to her feet and they stood, gazes locked, for what seemed like an eternity as the tears began to flow from Sara. She rushed into his arms and he gripped her tightly, never wanting to let her go. He inhaled, the scent of her hair filling his nostrils, as he held her tightly. "Shh," he cooed, stroking her hair. "It's okay, Sara. I'm here now. I'm here, and we're going to straighten all of this out, okay?" He pulled back and stared at her, wiping the tears from her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him. When she pulled back he stared at her in surprise.

"I'm so sorry, Gil..." He took her hand and led her back to her bunk. They sat down. He stared at her as she leaned her head back against the wall. They were silent for a few minutes, the only sounds being Sara's slightly ragged breathing.

Finally, she spoke. "How did you find me?"

"I took a wild guess," he replied, "I figured you'd go home." She scoffed.

"Home," she replied almost bitterly. "Like I know where that is anymore." She sighed. "Why'd I even leave, Gil? Why am I here?"

"You're here because you feel you need to be here."

"Yeah. Next thing I know I'm arrested for murder."

"What happened, Sara?" She took a deep breath and ran a hand over her head.

"I don't know. I can't remember. The only thing I can remember is waking up in the attic of my old home. I was covered in blood, I was kind of cut up, and I saw there was a body laid out across the attic. Merle. He knew my parents. He knew me when I was little. I tried to call for help, but the phones were dead in the house, so I walked to the police station. Next thing I know, they're saying I'm in shock, and I'm being arrested and...Gil, I don't know if I did it."

"You haven't told them anything, have you?"

She shook her head. "No. But they said that they have a rock-solid case against me."

"They're probably bluffing, Sara." He stroked her hair. "I called Catherine. She's sending me somebody to help clear you."

"Oh, God..." she put her head in her hands.

"What?"

"They all hate me after everything, don't they?" He took a deep breath.

"I don't think they hate you. I just don't think they understand." He took her hand in his. "We're going to get you out of this, Sara." She nodded, a sad smile crossing her face.

"Thank you, Gil." She shook her head and stared at the wall.

"Sara, what do you remember?" he pressed. She shook her head.

"I told you, Gil." She shook her head. "It wouldn't surprise me if I did. I'm self-destructive, Gil, and..."

"Sara, stop." She stared at him, wiping her eyes. "You didn't do this. I know you. You're not as self-destructive as you think. And you don't have a 'murder gene', no matter what you think. What your mother did is not going to happen to you."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because those who don't believe in history, are doomed to repeat it." He took a deep breath and he released her hand. "Sara, you're not a killer. And we're going to prove that."

He jumped as he heard a thump on the bars. He turned to see the guard. "Time's up, Mr. Grissom."

He turned to Sara. "If you remember anything, you tell us. We'll be here everyday until you're free." She nodded.

He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay with her, and hold onto her and clear her name. She wasn't a murderer and he knew it. He stood up and hugged her. She clutched tightly, not wanting to let him go. She cried into his shoulder and with a heavy heart, he reached behind him and moved her arms away. "I love you, Sara," he whispered, "and we'll get you out of here."

She nodded and sobbed harder as they separated from each other for the second time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Nick Stokes arrived in Tamales Bay, and instantly began driving around in search of the blue Bed and Breakfast Catherine had informed him about on the way out.

Tamales Bay was a nice town; Sara never talked about it. There was quite a bit he didn't know about Sara, although he regarded their relationship as something almost sibling-like. When she had left, like everyone else, he had been devastated. But he knew that Sara had been different since being trapped in the desert. Some events change people. Nick knew that better than everyone else. The first time he had a gun held on him, he had been fearful, and thankful, crying, when Grissom had come to his aid. Afterwards, it no longer feared him as much. His stalker, Nigel, had changed him. He had become more wary of people, and he still found himself checking over his shoulders when he left work at night.

When he had been buried alive, though, that had been his turning point. He still couldn't get comfortable in confined spaces and the sight of fire ants sent chills up his spine. He disliked it all, and it had changed him.

But Sara was always so vulnerable. So inverted. And when he had found her in the desert, he had been terrified that she had died as a result. But he knew that her abduction and being so close to death had awakened her in ways that nobody at the lab could comprehend. She had a lot to deal with; a lot she hadn't told anybody, except for probably Grissom, who had been heartbroken by her departure.

Obviously, life hadn't been too kind to Sara after she had left Las Vegas. Something had obviously gone wrong since she was now implicated in a murder. He couldn't believe Grissom had driven all the way out at the drop of a hat for her, but he assumed their relationship was a lot more special than he had originally thought.

The Bed and Breakfast was a tall house with chipping paint. The lawns were well-kept, and he spotted Grissom's Tahoe parked on the gravel driveway. He pulled in and stopped his vehicle. He needed something to eat. And he needed to see Grissom. He stepped out of the car and locked it before heading up the front steps of the house.

There was an elderly couple inside and they met Nick at the doorway. "Can we help you?"

"Yeah, I came to stay here for a few days with a friend of mine. He's the guy with the blue Tahoe out there."

"Ah, yes, yes. He said somebody would be coming along. Go on up. We have your room ready." She handed him a key. "It's next door to your friend." Nick nodded a thanks and headed up the steps.

The inside of the house was fairly nice. White walls with a wooden staircase that led to an airy, white upstairs area. He saw three rooms next to one another and he assumed Grissom was in one of them. He went to one of the doors and knocked. "Gris? Gris, it's Nick."

He heard the door two doors down unlatch and open and he turned to see Grissom poke his head out. His eyes were slightly reddish; indicative of crying, which surprised Nick. "Yeah, come on in."

Nick shrugged and walked into Grissom's room. He closed the door. "Thanks for coming out, Nick."

"No problem. Hey – do you know if there's any restaurants around here?"

"I ordered for pizza a little while ago," Grissom admitted, sitting down on the bed. Nick pulled up a chair.

"Have you seen her?" Nick inquired. Grissom nodded. "How is she? What's going on?"

"She doesn't remember, Nick. But they're saying she killed somebody. It doesn't look good either. She woke up covered in the vic's blood – allegedly – and she left the scene to go to the police. The cops here say that they have a rock-solid case against her, but I'm thinking they're bluffing. They just want her to confess to get a nice, clean wrap up to the case. I think they're deceiving the evidence."

"Is that why I'm here?"

Grissom nodded. "I want to get her out of there. How can she take care of what she needs to when she's trapped in an eight by nine cell?"

"What happens after? Has she said she's returning to Vegas?"

Grissom clenched his jaw in contemplation. "No, she hasn't. But we can't leave her to rot in a cell, Nick."

"I know. That wasn't what I was implying," Nick insisted. Grissom nodded.

"I know, Nick. I'm sorry. I'm just really tired. I haven't really slept in the last two days." Nick nodded.

"Cath said you ran off like a thief in the night," he teased. Grissom smirked.

"Yeah, she would say that. Not like she's complaining. She's in charge." Nick laughed. He still felt stiff from the drive.

"So, this is where Sara's from, huh?"

"Yeah."

"She's never really talked about here."

"She wouldn't," Grissom replied. "She doesn't have a lot of good memories from here."

"So what do we do?"

"Tonight, we rest, and we piece together what she's told me. Tomorrow, we go interview Sara and some townspeople and we go re-process the crime scene. Did you bring your kit?"

"Of course."

"Good. We'll try to get this wrapped up in a couple of days." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "The sooner we get Sara out, the sooner we can incur the wrath of Conrad." Nick chuckled.

"Yeah, I heard he wasn't too happy."

"Is that new?" Grissom inquired and Nick shrugged as if to say, "Touche."

There was a knock on the door and Grissom went to answer it. It was the owner's wife, with a pizza. Grissom reimbursed her for it and took the box. "I'm going to assume you haven't eaten," he said to Nick.

"You've assumed correctly," he replied as Grissom put it on the nightstand. There was no kitchen suite in the room. "You?"

"I went to get something from the gas station up the road, but I forgot about it when they told me Sara might have been at the hospital."

"So what do we know?"

"Sara said she woke up in the attic of her old home. Said she was covered in blood and there was another body there coated in blood as well."

"Did she call the police before she left the scene?"

"She said that the phones were out, and that's why she walked to the police station. That's about all we know. Sara can't remember anything, which means she was either attacked or possibly drugged. The hospital told me she had several scrapes and abrasions."

"Did you look her over at the jail?" Grissom shook his head.

"She was covered in long sleeves. I couldn't see anything."

"You think they're bluffing?"

"I know they're bluffing. They just want to pin this on someone and because she left the scene it was just that easy. You remember what it's like to be set up."

"Yeah," Nick exhaled. "It wasn't fun. How is Sara handling this?"

"She's pretty sure she did it. She can't remember, but she thinks that this is her being self-destructive."

"You're kidding."

"I'm afraid not, Nicky. But we'll get her out of this."

"How long ago was this guy killed?"

"Don't know. There's a good chance that we could have lost some of our evidence."

"So how do we do this?"

"We look at the setup – he wanted it to look like it painted a picture. Remember, Nick, the criminal is the artist. The detective? Merely a critic."

Nick nodded and ate his pizza, allowing Grissom's words to sink in. He hoped Sara would remember what had happened. Her life depended on it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

As the day slowly faded into night, Sara Sidle lay on her bunk in the jail cell, still in tears over her reunion with Grissom. She wished that he hadn't seen her cry. She had always prayed that if she saw him again, she would be happy; she would no longer be the vulnerable, somber woman that he had fallen in love with.

She had started to self-destruct years ago, when the memories of her childhood had became more prominent in her mind. She had turned to alcohol for solace and it had culminated with her squeaking out of a DUI charge. She recalled the humiliation. Grissom had been there for her. She had almost lost her job; she had become beligerent with Catherine and Ecklie. She cried harder as she recalled the night she told Grissom about her past. She cried, thinking about how silent he remained, when his hand just reached out to touch hers. By saying nothing, he had done so much. And for that, she would never be able to thank him enough.

Over the years she had feared that she would self-destruct more and more. Being trapped under the car and facing Hannah West again had given her an epiphany, that she couldn't live her life so isolated, so haunted by her past. She couldn't grieve and bury her past in Las Vegas, so she had returned to her hometown. But she still didn't feel at home. She thought of Grissom everyday, and some days she would sit down on her bed and sob, wishing that she hadn't left him. He had been the one thing that had made her feel that life was worth living, and with him gone, she felt so empty. But she couldn't ask him to come along; this was something she needed to do. It would have been selfish for her to make him give up his life's work and ride off into the sunset with her. Life wasn't like that, and Sara had learned that early.

She cried for everything that had ever happened in her life. She cried for Grissom, for her father's abuse and death, she cried for her mother's institutionalization, she cried for Nick being buried alive, for everything that had ever gone wrong in her life and her relationships with others.

Her body felt weak from her sobs. But she knew she was in good hands with Grissom. But they said the case against her was rock-solid. The officers were livid that she wouldn't confess; how could she? She couldn't remember anything. When she had awakened and seen herself covered in Merle's blood, she had panicked. She instantly wondered if she had done it, if her mother's actions had come back through her.

She had tried to call for help, but it didn't work. The phone lines had been cut, or the power had been knocked out. She wasn't sure. She knew that a power outage had hit Tamales Bay, but she wasn't sure if it had started at that time. So she decided to walk to the police station to get help; however, she collapsed on the side of the road and she had been taken to the hospital by a random Samaritan she never saw. The hospital had seen her wounds and called the police, but by then they had already been to the house and had seen Merle. The officers concluded that since there had already been a murder that had taken place there, it was a like-mother, like-daughter sort of thing and had arrested her when she was released.

She had told them all she knew; but the officers refused to listen. They had tried to get her to confess that she had murdered Merle, and when she had demanded an attorney, the laughed off her request, although they knew that meant that the questioning was over. Instead, they just took her to her cell.

When this was over, she resolved, and she was found innocent, she vowed to sue the Tamales Bay Police Department for their actions. It had been unfair.

She wondered who Catherine would send to help Grissom and she wondered if they all hated her for leaving the way she did. She knew it was cowardly; but her heart would have broken if she had to watch Grissom beg her to stay. It had been hard to leave him, but she knew it was something she needed to do to be healthy. She couldn't face death on a daily basis, and that was all she could see in Las Vegas. But now that she found herself in her hometown, away from Vegas and her friends, she wondered about how right her decision was in the first place.

Her brain waves couldn't slow, and the seconds melted into minutes, which slugged its way into hours. She wondered what Grissom was doing. She wondered if the other CSI was out here, ready to help her. She wondered if there were apprehensions on their part about helping her out.

She wondered how it was all going to play out. If Grissom would be able to get her out. But what would she do after? She didn't know.

She finally fell asleep several hours later, with Grissom on her mind.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A.N.: Sorry it's been so long for the post, guys. There's been some severe personal stuff happening out on my end. I know this chapter is a little bit sluggish. I will have chapter eleven up tonight or tomorrow and then the ball is really going to get rolling. I'm really sorry you guys. Thank you all for your patience, and thank you all so much for the reviews you've given me. It means a lot. **_

**Chapter Ten**

Grissom woke up at the break of dawn. Instinctively, he reached out to the other side of the bed, his eyes opening when he realized that Sara wasn't there. He took a few minutes to regain his composure before getting out of bed.

Nick was still asleep, Grissom was pretty sure of that. But he got dressed and went downstairs and out to the gas station for the coffee he had forgotten about the day before. It was surprisingly decent..for something that always seemed to taste like motor oil.

He wondered what Sara was doing this morning. If she had slept at all. It broke his heart to pull her arms away from him, to walk out of the cell as she sobbed and cried for him. He had almost cried; once he had gotten outside of the jail, he had rubbed his eyes, hoping that more tears wouldn't slip out. Watching her in pain, stuck in this situation was too much for him to take.

The air was still crisp, chilly from the harbor. He thought of Sara, stuck in her bunk, under a thin orange blanket, and he wondered if she was thinking of him. Did she still feel for him, or was she happy for help? She was clearly in over her head here.

She had spent years chasing him, and he hadn't seen it. And when he finally did, she was still waiting. He hadn't been too late. But even then she had slipped away, slipped through his fingers like Hannah West had slipped through hers. He couldn't comprehend the effect that Hannah had on Sara. There was something there between the two, a sort of cat-and-mouse attitude that Sara had tried to see through, but in the end she realized that Hannah had won out. That she had been the one playing games and that her heart was no longer in the job.

He had remembered confronting her outside after her interview with Hannah. He had never seen her so intense, so furious. Her eyes. They had been so cold, so different. He had never seen Sara so riled up. And when she had stormed out, he had tried to meet up with her, to get answers. She had only told him that his presence was making the situation worse and she didn't want to talk. He knew the wheels were in motion for her to leave; he blatantly ignored the signs. She had been so distant. So vacant. She walked around with a sad smile on her face, not talking about the affect Natalie's actions had on her. She wouldn't even talk about it with him. Each night they would lie together in bed, and she would just sleep. Some nights he could hear her whimper and longed to reach out to touch her. But he knew by doing so, she'd just clam up.

The team was upset that she hadn't said goodbye to them. He understood their feelings. But it had been much more different for him, and it was something they couldn't understand. He thought she would be there for the rest of his life, and he would make her happy. And she left.

He climbed back into his vehicle and drove back to the Bed and Breakfast. By this time, Nick was already outside, getting ready to go when Grissom pulled up. "Where you off to, Nicky?"

"I wanted to get started with some interviews."

"Well, I was just coming to check up on you. Did you want to come visit Sara with me?" Nick nodded and grabbed his field kit. He stuck it in the back of Grissom's vehicle and climbed into the passenger's side.

"So who are we going to talk to today?" he asked.

"Well, we're going to talk to the doctors at the hospital and the police. We're going to see if we can determine anyway that Sara was drugged."

"You think so?"

"It's probably why she doesn't remember anything," Grissom replied. "You remember that smoke bomb case we had? The guy with the foot fetish who drugged his vic with nitrous oxide?"

"Yeah."

"We found Larazapam in her system. It tampers with your memory. We can see if anybody here has gotten a perscription for Larazapam in the last six months and see if we can work from there. Maybe our suspect used it on Sara to set her up." Nick looked slightly skeptical, and hesitated before speaking his next few words.

"What if she did it, Grissom?"

"Don't say that. We know Sara. There was no way she did this. Not after..." Grissom trailed off, realizing he had let too much slip.

"After what, Gris?"

"Nothing, Nicky. Never mind."

"This could be pertinent to the case. Tell me."

Grissom took a deep breath. "Sara was in foster care when she was younger."

"I know."

"You do?"

"Yeah. She told me that she spent her teenage years in the foster system."

"Did she tell you why?" Nick shook his head. They were close; but there were some things that Sara wouldn't talk about.

"No."

Grissom took a deep breath. "Sara's mother killed her father, Nick. She's pretty convinced that she did this because she thinks there's such a thing as a murder gene."

Nick was silent, surprised. "What do you think?"

"I think she's innocent and these officials here are trying to play hardball for a quick, clean finish," he replied. "And we're not going to do that to Sara, no matter what anyone feels about her right now. She's doing what she needs to do, and we can't leave her to rot in a cell because of that. It isn't right."

"I know. But what happens if she did it, Gris?"

"Well, the evidence isn't going to lie."


	11. Chapter 11

_**A.N.: Thank you everybody for your patience through the good, the bad and the sluggish. Your reviews mean so much, and I've never seen so many reviews for one of my stories. Sorry it's taken so long. Been on vacation for the past month. Happy New Year, guys!**_

**Chapter Eleven**

Sara was awake and pacing through her cell early in the morning when Nick and Grissom arrived at the jail. She looked much better than she did the night before, when Grissom had first seen her. Her face looked more relieved than tense, her eyes were sad, but nowhere near the swollen red orbs they had been when he had seen her last. She seemed comforted by his presence, and it relieved him. Even though it had only been a day since he had seen her, he felt like it had been an eternity.

Her eyes brightened when she saw them. "Nick? Catherine sent you?"

"Hey, Sara," he replied with a grin on his face. "How are you doing?"

"Can't complain," she told him and he smirked at her weak attempt at humor.

"Do you remember anything now, Sara?" Grissom asked her. She shook her head.

"I just remember waking up. And all the blood in the room. The room had that metallic smell." Nick opened his field kit and began setting up a syringe. Sara's eyes shifted to Grissom. "What is he doing?"

"We're going to take a blood sample. There's a good chance that you were drugged," he told her. "We'll send the contents out to Doc Robbins." Sara put a hand on her hip.

"What about here? Wouldn't that make it go faster?"

"I'm pretty sure everyone is in on this in some way or another, Sara, and in the event our killer is a public servant, we don't want to run the risk." Sara nodded.

Sara began to roll up the sleeve of her long-sleeved jumpsuit and held out her arm for Nick. "So, you think I was drugged?"

"It's a good possibility as to why you won't remember anything." Sara nodded, wincing as Nick drew a vial of blood from her. She exhaled as he withdrew the needle. "Thanks, Sara." He gathered a container. "I'll get this shipped ASAP to Doc." Grissom nodded and Nick left the cell to take care of it.

They were silent. Finally, Sara broke the silence. "I'm sorry about last night, Gil."

"Don't be," he told her. "You were scared. It's natural." She nodded.

"What happens if I did this, Gil? How can I live with myself after that?"

"You didn't do this, Sara." She shrugged. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Nick and I are going to prove that you didn't do this."

"Why is it when I try to escape death, it follows?" she asked, her tone tearful. Grissom took a deep breath. He had no answer for it. He never fully understood how important it was for her to see the finer, happy things in life. To enjoy the simplicities that life brought, none of which included blood spatter, subdural hematomas, charred remains, fibers, hairs, and all the other wonderous complexities that forensic science offered. She was so focused on science and on capturing those who committed crimes that she never really understood the beauty of daylight and smelling flowers, of just being happy to have the sunlight on her face, or the breeze brush against her during a simple walk on the beach. The simplicities had been absent from her life for a long time, and it appeared they would be continually denied from her for the next little while.

He wanted to ask her why she had called him; what she expected to happen between the two of them. Would she come back to Las Vegas if she managed to make it out of the situation? Although he was tempted to ask her, he understood that it wasn't the appropriate time to ask her to put her life on hold for him. To come back to him so he could provide the sort of happily ever after idea that he had envisioned for the two of them.

Sara could sense the tension between them, and decided not to address it. She didn't want anything to become awkward during the case. "Are you sure you want to do this, Gil? Is this too awkward?"

"No, no," he assured her. "Everything is okay. Just take it easy, and before you know it, Nick and I will have this case solved." She nodded. He knew it would be awkward. He had known it the second she had called sobbing for help. But he knew that she needed his help, and he would never let any harm come her way.

"Okay," she replied after a seemingly eternal silence. "I trust you guys." Grissom fought the urge to flinch at the words. He knew this was serious. Her life was in his hands.

Nick returned a short while later as the two spoke candidly about the case. "The, uh, blood work has been sent to Doc. He said he'll call your cell when he gets the tox screen back." Nick found himself enveloped in the odd, thick awkwardness that Sara and Grissom shared as they sat in the prison cell. He cleared his throat. "Um, Gris, do you want to go and look at the house? We should gather the evidence now before they get somebody in there to clean the house."

Grissom nodded and he turned to Sara. "We'll be back in the morning to tell you everything we found at the crime scene, okay?" She nodded and he stood to his feet. "Come on, Nicky." The two men left the cell.

"Grissom, is everything okay with you and Sara?" Nick inquired. Grissom shrugged.

"Everything's fine, considering the circumstances, Nick," he replied.

"Is she coming back to Vegas after all this?"

"I don't know. Sara and I haven't talked about it, Nick," he answered. His tone was slightly strained. Nick knew better than to press the issue and they walked out towards Grissom's Chevy Tahoe in a tense silence.

The ride to Sara's home was awkward, tense, and Nick fought the guilty feeling that he had hurt Grissom's feelings by asking so many questions. But the entire situation was so curious to him. It wasn't like Grissom to sneak off like a thief in the night for anything or anyone. When he had learned that it was Sara who had called him, begging him to save her from an uncertain, dark fate that was reminiscent of her mother's, he had been skeptical. Sara had left in the middle of the night, leaving Grissom a goodbye letter. Nick had battled his feelings of anger and resentment towards Grissom and Sara for months afterwards. He felt Grissom could have done more to make her stay and that Sara's abrupt departure and letter was a copout. Of course, he never told Grissom this. Greg on the other hand, he had ranted to a lot since finding out about Grissom and Sara's relationship.

The relationship had upset him, too. It had caused Sara to transfer to the swing shift with that wide-eyed Ronnie Lake, and it upset him that the team had been split up. But he knew that Sara and Grissom – Mr. By-The-Book – had actually broken protocol by engaging in a relationship with Sara. Sara's transfer had only seemed appropriate. He knew it. Any time he would have given Sara a big case, Catherine was probably going to throw their relationship in the face. He liked Catherine; she was a good friend. But she knew how to manipulate her way into taking the big cases. She was ambitious, and ruthless, and she knew how to play politics. It was why Grissom relied on her so much with the political backstabbing that took place within the ranks of the CSI building.

The Tahoe pulled into the driveway of Sara's home, a two-story wooden home with front steps that were cluttered with rotted leaves. Nick wondered if Sara ever left the house. The car stopped and they sat in silence for a second. "You ready to do this, Nicky?"

"Yeah," Nick replied, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Let's go get Sara out of that prison." They opened the doors and made their way to the back to gather the field kit. It was time to solve a murder.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Really sorry, you guys. Please forgive me. My muse broke up with me, so I haven't even really been writing. Here's chapter twelve.**_

**Chapter Twelve**

The inside of the house appeared surprisingly neat considering the chaos. It appeared as though nothing had been processed. Grissom and Nick made their way up the stairs by the front door and went upstairs to the bedroom.

The bedroom was covered in blood. It was everywhere; up the walls, all over the bedspread. Nick set his field kit down on the floor and quickly opened it up. "Must have been a hell of a crime scene," Nick replied. He could see the shape of a body silhouetted in the puddle of blood on the floor.

Grissom pulled out his digital camera and began to take pictures of the crime scene around him. He walked over to the bed and snapped a few photos. He couldn't imagine Sara's fear as she woke up, covered in blood, to see a body at the foot of her bed.

It made no sense to him. Why would Sara go tuck herself into bed after killing a guy at the foot of her bed? It just didn't seem right. People did weird things after death, but he couldn't see her leaving the guy to rot on her bedroom floor as she slept.

"Does this all make sense to you, Grissom?" Nick inquired. Grissom pursed his lips into a tight line.

"No," Grissom answered honestly. "I can't see Sara killing somebody, let alone falling asleep with a body at the foot of the bed."

"When the blood work comes back, what do you think Doc's going to find?" Nick asked.

"I think she was drugged," Grissom replied, examining the window. There was a rose trellis up against the back wall. "No sign of forced entry up here," Grissom replied.

"You're thinking that somebody else made their way in here, drugged Sara and killed the vic?" Nick asked.

"The evidence hasn't told us much yet, Nicky," Grissom replied. "But it's starting to look that way. You keep going up here; I'm going to see if I can find any signs of forced entry downstairs." Nick nodded and Grissom disappeared from the room.

Nick began to swab the blood. The entire case didn't make sense to him; but it wouldn't be the first time he had a case that was royally messed up. He thought about Sara back in the jail cell. He hadn't seen the victim yet; but Sara was a tiny woman. He couldn't see her in any way wrestling a man down and killing him.

He assumed that Sara was drugged in an attempt to frame her. But Sara would have had to be unaware of the drugging. He couldn't see Sara's victim drugging her before she killed him. Anyway, Sara would have definitely remembered that happening. As it was now, she had no memory of the events leading up to the attack, or the attack itself. Even if she did, Nick was pretty sure that defense could get her off the hook for the death penalty.

His thoughts wandered back to Grissom as he photographed and collected evidence from the bedroom. Grissom was pretty much willing to bet his entire career on Sara being innocent. Nick knew Ecklie was probably pissed that Grissom stole away like a thief in the night to go play hero to a CSI who had walked off of the job. Ecklie hated Sara as it was; after all, Sara was emotional, temperamental at times, and made her feelings for Conrad Ecklie known.

Meanwhile, Grissom was downstairs, stalking through the house with a flashlight, searching for any sign of forced entry or any kind of evidence. He opened the dishwasher. There were two wine glasses. Grissom sighed; if Sara was drugged, then there was no way they were going to get anything off the glasses. He checked the sink. No dishes. Whoever drugged Sara had done a good job of covering their tracks.

He noticed the back door. It was slightly ajar. He gathered that could have been the suspect's exit, but what about entrance. Tamales Bay was considered a nice litle small town, there was the possibility that Sara didn't lock her door. And if Sara was drugged, there was no possible way she was going to remember.

He thought about where else she could have been drugged. The idea of her being drugged at her home with strangers in her home made no sense to him. Sara was so distrustful of people as it was. He took a deep breath as Nick's feet trudged its way down the stairs.

"Find anything, Gris?" Nick inquired, field kit in hand.

"Check that doorknob for fingerprints," Grissom told him. "I think we might have something here."

Nick leaned down and began to dust the prints off the door. "What are you thinking?"

"I think if she got drugged, it was somewhere else. I can't see her living alone, letting random men get her drinks for her."

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

Grissom and Nick wheeled around to see two guns pointed in their faces.


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: Again, I would like to thank you all for your patience over the last couple weeks. It means a lot that everyone is still following along after such long intervals. **_

**Chapter Thirteen**

Two local police officers stood with their guns drawn on Grissom and Nick. Nick straightened out into the standing position. Grissom raised his hands in the air politely.

"What the hell are you two doing in here?" the taller officer snarled.

"We're with the crime lab," Grissom replied. "If you'll allow me, I would like to reach into my pocket and show you my identification."

The officer cocked his gun. "You two get out of here. I know who you are. Billy and I have looked into this. You two are out of our jurisdiction. You two don't belong here."

Grissom was silent. He didn't know what to say about that. But Nick piped up. "We've been independently contacted by the suspect and her family to do a private investigation. We are not under jurisdiction right now; we are under contract."

Grissom arched an eyebrow. He had to admit; Nick was a fast thinker. He was impressed. The officers scowled. Nick continued, "Now, you could either let us complete our investigation and assist us with any information you may know, or Grissom and I here could take you two to court and force the information out of you."

The four men stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity before they finally put their guns down. "What are you two trying to prove?" The man identified as Billy asked.

"We're trying to gather what evidence we can and process it accordingly," Grissom replied, his tone firm, yet polite.

"So what do you two have?" the other officer asked them. Grissom shook his head.

"We can't talk about a current investigation," Grissom replied. The officers were visibly agitated. Nick's cell phone rang. He answered.

"Stokes." Nick listened in. "Hey, Doc. You put a rush on it? Thank you so much. What do we have?" He listened silently, his facial expression serene. He nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Doc." He hung up the phone and leaned over to Grissom. "Sara's bloodwork came in."

Grissom nodded. He looked to the two officers. "Excuse us." With that, he and Nick walked into the living room area. "What did Doc say?" Grissom inquired.

"He found trace amounts of Lorazipam in her system. We're going to need to go to the pharmacy and see if we can track down any sort of prescriptions for Lorazipam. Also see if any of them frequent bars. We're going to have to ask Sara about that, too. I can't see somebody drugging her here."

Grissom nodded.

"Hey – don't walk away from us!" Nick suppressed a laugh. Grissom and Nick shrugged and went back into the kitchen.

"Anything we can help you with, boys?" Nick replied, a wide smile on his face.

"Yeah. You two can tell us what you got. Maybe we have something new to help you with?"

"What do you got?" Grissom inquired. "What do you have that is so damn incriminating against Sara?"

"We have eye witness testimony..."

"Of what? Sara walking through the streets covered in blood?" Grissom demanded, his tone slightly hostile. Nick nudged Grissom with his arm and Grissom nodded, realizing he had to keep his emotions in check. The fact was that they were "independently contracted" by Sara and her family, so there was no room for Grissom to indicate any kind of intimate relationship with Sara. It would just be a reason for the officers to kick Grissom out of Tamales Bay, but not before telling him to take Nick with him. And he couldn't risk doing that to Sara. She needed his help. She had called him, begging him. Her cries on the other end of the phone still haunted him as he slept each night. He would give anything for her to never feel the fear that the situation had brought down on her.

"No. For your information we have an eye witness that was in the house when Sara killed him," Billy replied with a sneer.

Nick scoffed. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?" Grissom nodded in agreement with Nick's statement.

"It's true," the officer insisted.

"Well, we'll just see what the evidence says," Grissom replied matter-of-factly. "And then we'll determine whether or not Sara committed this murder. Now, who's our victim? What do we know about him?"

"Merle Andrews. Aged sixty. He was a childhood friend of the Sidle family. He was actually taking care of the house until Sara moved back three months ago."

"We're thinking he came in to grab a couple things," Billy replied, "and probably surprised Sara, and she killed him."

Nick and Grissom exchanged knowing glances. "Well, the evidence suggests otherwise," Grissom replied.

"What evidence?" Billy demanded.

"Can we keep processing the scene? Or should we leave you boys to your work?" Nick replied. The officers exhaled.

"You boys had better promise to give us whatever evidence you got when you get it all together." Grissom nodded.

"You have our word."

The officers nodded. "Just watch your step here. You're definitely on thin ice. Stepping on our toes and whatnot. Watch yourselves, boys."

"Thanks for the threat," Nick replied, his eyes narrowed, tone grim. The officers scowled at Nick before going upstairs to take care of a few things. "Jackass," Nick murmured under his breath when they were out of earshot.

"You did good, Nicky," Grissom commended him. Nick nodded, flattered.

"Thanks, Gris."

"We're going to need to get a hold of those files and find out just who this eye witness was," Grissom mused.

"They're probably making him up. To get us off the case and to get Sara to confess by intimidating her."

"I wouldn't be surprised. They sure don't play by the rules here," Grissom replied.

"This isn't Texas," Nick replied. "They're not 'Good Old Boys' up here." Grissom smirked and they began to process the living room area.

It appeared clean. Whomever had been in here obviously hadn't been in the living room. But they gathered samples and fingerprints anyway. They hoped that they would be able to gather something. A third set of fingerprints aside from Sara and Merle.

"What are you thinking, Gris?"

"I'm thinking that whomever was in here definitely knew how to cover their tracks," Grissom replied.

"Well, let's hope they got sloppy in the bedroom." Grissom's eyebrow arched.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Sara was sitting in her cell, alone, when Grissom and Nick returned from her home. She stood as the two men entered her cell. "Hey guys. Did you find anything?"

"Well, your bloodwork came back from Doc's," Nick replied, setting down his field kit and opening it. Grissom produced his camera.

"And?"

"It appears that you were drugged," Grissom informed her.

"Doc found trace amounts of Lorazipam in your system, Sara. Now what we need you to do is lift your sleeves so that we can get some pictures of any wounds or bruises that you may have pertaining to this investigation."

Sara nodded and raised her sleeves up as high as she could. There were several abrasions on her wrists. "How did you get these, Sara?"

"I don't remember."

"Is there anything that you're remembering now?" Nick inquired. She shook her head.

"Not much. It's still pretty hazy. I remember that I went grocery shopping early in the day and I got home and Merle was there."

"Oh?"

"We argued...at least I think we did. I think he was supposed to give me back the key and he hadn't yet. Merle always creeped me out."

Grissom nodded. "What happened after that?"

"I'm not sure. I think I left," she stared at them, her eyes full of desperation. "I'm so sorry, you guys. I just can't remember right now."

"You will eventually. Do you recall if there was a third man at the house?" Grissom asked. Sara shook her head.

"No. I can't remember anything. Why?"

"The police officers we ran into at your house claims that somebody saw you kill Merle."

"Yeah. They told me that at interrogation. I can't remember though. They got angry because I couldn't remember anything. I wouldn't admit to it because I don't know." She stared at them, her eyes glazed with hopelessness. "How does their case against me look?"

"Not very good," Grissom replied. "You could probably get a change of venue if they push you for trial."

"I'm not promising you anything, but I have the feeling you won't go to trial," Nick told her. "Their case is built on nothing because they have nothing." Sara nodded.

"You sure about that?"

"I'm pretty sure about that," he replied as Grissom snapped photographs of her wrists.

"Are you sure you don't remember anything?" he asked. Sara nodded.

"I'm telling you everything I can think of." Grissom nodded.

"These appear to look like ropeburns, Nick." Nick took a look and nodded.

"If you remember anything, please write it down and let us know," Grissom replied. Sara nodded.

"I will. I promise." Grissom and Sara locked eyes. She longed to kiss him. To thank him for all of his help. To hug Nick and thank him for coming out to California at the drop of a hat to help her out of her mess. There was nothing she could do that would ever repay them for helping her.

They examined Sara semi-thoroughly; checking for any signs of injuries. Sara didn't really have anything. The worst of the injuries were on her arms, with a few cuts and the ropeburn abrasions.

They still wanted to make some stops, but the sun was starting to go downm. They had spent a few hours at the house. The following day they wanted to stop off at the hospital and get some of her records, along with going to the pharmacy and getting the receipts for everyone who was prescribed Lorazipam in Tamales Bay. Grissom hoped that there wouldn't be many. If there were none, however, he feared that he would have to look outside of Tamales Bay, probably in San Fransisco.

They bid Sara farewell when the sun finally disappeared behind the deep blue sky. She was relieved that they had gathered some evidence. Now, all they had to do was mail it off to Catherine and Greg to sort through what they had gathered. It was obvious that there were extreme cases of incompetence within the police force.

As they were driving back to the Bed and Breakfast, Grissom's cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the number, but answered anyway. "Grissom."

"Are you the guy who's investigating the Sidle case?"

"Why's it important?"

"I have some information for you. Would you care to meet me tomorrow morning?"

"Sure. Where at?"

"Coil's Cafe. You should know where that is. You were just there." The phone went dead.

"What happened?" Nick asked as Grissom hung up.

"I think the Tamales Bay Police Department suddenly has a viper in their mist."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

That morning, Grissom and Nick were up with the sunrise to meet with the anonymous tipster within the Tamales Bay Police Department. They both dressed in silence and met each other downstairs at the entrance to the Bed and Breakfast. Nick was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes; from the looks of Grissom, he hadn't slept a wink, but was still wide awake.

"You ready for the meeting, Nicky?" he inquired, hitting the button on his keychain that would open the doors of his Tahoe. The two men climbed into the Tahoe and they drove towards Coil's Cafe.

He knew that Grissom wasn't totally sleeping. He spent his nights awake, with poker on the television, poring over Sara's case, hoping that he was going to find something that would help him out. Nick knew about all this; he could hear the poker games blaring as he tried to sleep every night. He wondered how long they'd be out here. He missed being back home in his own bed, and seeing Catherine, Warrick, Greg and even kind of missed Hodges a little bit. But he knew that Sara needed their help.

He wondered what Grissom expected out of the situation. He wondered if Sara wanted to come back to Las Vegas after she was cleared of these charges. The entire case didn't seem to make a lot of sense to Nick. He wondered what kind of connection Merle had to Sara and her family. He made a mental note to check into it. He knew they were probably going to have to delve into the night that Sara's mother killed her father. He was going to have to start asking around while Grissom prodded around and made his sweet promises to Sara that she would eventually be free.

Coil's Cafe was practically empty by the time that they arrived. It was still early, only loggers and tourists were in, only filling up five or six seats. There was a woman who spotted the two men and waved to them. She was short, kind of stout, with curly red hair and dressed in a flannel red T-shirt and blue jeans. Grissom shot a look at Nick and they made their way over to the women.

"Are you the one who called us?" Grissom inquired as they approached her table. Nick pulled up a chair and sat down.

"That would be me," the woman replied with a smile. "My name's Annie. Merle was my husband."

Grissom sat down. "What do you do?"

"I work as a receptionist for the police department. Merle used to be a police officer, but he lost his job years ago. Drinking on the job." She sighed. "My Merle had his struggles, that he did."

"So what do you want to tell us?"

The woman who identified herself as Annie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sipped on her coffee as Nick and Grissom ordered coffee from an approaching waitress. She smiled. "I can tell you your girlfriend Sara is definitely innocent here. They're trying to persecute her for something that happened years ago, when she was a child and had no concept of what was happening."

"You mean the death of her father," Nick interjected. Grissom shot him a look.

"Precisely. Sara's father was an officer here. It's how Sara got interested in science. See, Merle and I were good friends with the Sidle family. Merle...well, he knew more about Laura Sidle than he should have."

"Wait a minute," Grissom interrupted, holding up a hand as the waitress placed their coffee mugs. They waited until she walked out of earshot. "Are you saying that your husband had an affair with Sara's mother?"

"We hadn't been married for too long at that point, and Merle was starting to have his troubles with alcohol. And it wasn't a secret how Sara's father treated her mother. He beat her awful bad sometimes. But Laura always had an excuse. We always used to worry about Sara."

"What can you tell us about the night Sara's mother killed her father?" Grissom inquired. Annie sipped her coffee.

"It was an ugly night. We're still not too sure what happened. But Merle was called over there with another officer and a social worker. He said they got in there and Laura was standing over his body, screaming at him. She had gone insane, Merle swore she was possessed. It took him and the other officer to restrain her. They had to call in a nurse to sedate her. She was nearly inconsolable when the social worker took Sara out.

"I don't know how much Sara remembers, or how much she knows. I can only imagine the life she lived after she was taken away."

"What can you tell us about after? You said Sara was being persecuted. So what happened here with Laura Sidle?" Nick inquired.

"Sara's father was very beloved in this town, despite the fact that he used to beat Laura something fierce. It's how she kind of went off with my husband. I found out years after. But the police department wanted to put Laura away for killing one of their own. Sara was already in protective custody, waiting to go into foster care. They didn't care that she was suffering from Battered Wife Syndrome, or Post Traumatic Stress disorder...I can't quite remember what was being argued...but they wanted to put her on death row for killing Sara's father.

"Unfortunately for the police officers here, the newspapers created so much publicity that Laura's attorneys managed to get a change of venue to San Fransisco. The jury there sympathized with her and had her committed to an asylum. Before Sara went to foster care, she was taken to visit her mother a few times. But Laura never fully recovered mentally from all the years of abuse. A product of that free-loving hippie lifestyle, I suppose."

"So do you know what happened to Merle?" Grissom asked.

"I know that when Sara came back, they were hoping she would slip up like Laura," Annie replied. "A lot of the officers didn't really forget what had happened. Merle wanted to look out for her because of this attention that she was being given."

"Were you and Merle still together at the time of his death?" Nick asked. Annie shook her head.

"Not for many years. We divorced just after Sara was put into her first foster home. We wanted to take her, but it was a conflict of interest because he was an arresting officer. We had to sit back and watch as Sara was put through foster home after foster home. We were so happy to hear she had come back. She spoke a lot of you, Mr. Grissom." Grissom looked stricken by surprise at the news.

"Look," Annie continued, "I can tell you that they don't have a damn thing on Sara for Merle's killer. But the law enforcement officials who were involved with her mother are the ones who are behind this. I can tell you that an officer named Eric McDonald is definitely ringleading this. He was the other officer with Merle who went in to make the arrest. He was so sure that Laura killed him in cold blood, and he would have done just about anything to crucify her for it. He went before the police review board when his ethics were questioned regarding the case, but they let him go."

"What for?"

"He was one of their top guys," Annie replied. "There's a lot of corruption within the police station. If you guys are going to be able to capture the ringleader, you're going to need to use Sara's memory."

"She doesn't remember what happened that night," Nick replied. "We've spoken to her several times, and the effects of the Larazipam she was given hasn't worn off."

"You're going to have to dig farther back to the days with her father," Annie replied. She checked her watch. "I'm sorry, boys, but I have to get to work. Look at the station. And look at the relationhips the Sidles had with the police. And please, Mr. Grissom, give Sara my best." She paid for her coffee, shook hands with them and left.

The two men sat in silence. "What are you thinking, Nicky?" Grissom asked.

"This case is definitely strange," Nick answered. "But if Sara had a pre-existing relationship with Merle, this case has just taken up a whole new level of messed up."


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N: Thank you so much you guys! This is the first story I've written to get over a hundred reviews. It means a lot! Hope you enjoy Chapter Sixteen. Thanks for your patience. Internet crashed on me a while ago.**_

**Chapter Sixteen**

Sara was outside reading when she was taken back inside to talk to her "privately contracted" investigators. Nick and Grissom were sitting at the table and Sara offered them a weak smile as she approached. However, they weren't smiling in the slightest.

"Hey, guys," she said. "Any new breaks?"

"How come you didn't tell us that your family had a relationship with our victim?" Grissom inquired. "Sara, you know that's important information."

"I was never sure of the affair," Sara replied. "I always just thought he was a good friend of the family. I mean, he was basically our neighbor, and Mom always had me call him Uncle Merle."

"You never told us that the town basically turned on your mother when she killed your father," Nick replied. Sara took a deep breath.

"This town didn't know a thing about my father," Sara replied, her tone dripping with venom. "He beat my mother. Everyone just figured that Mom was crazy, crying wolf. He blackened her eyes, split her lips, bruised her body up and down, and they all just said she cried wolf.

"I don't really remember how the town treated us. It was so long ago. I still remember the social worker. I remember the police, sitting in the back of the car as my mother was taken into an ambulance for a mental evaluation. I remember staring out the window, and that was all I could see. My mother screaming, hysterical, crying. It took them an hour to get the weapon out of her hand. They were afraid it was going to be a standoff, and they were terrified when they took me out of the house. Mom threatened to shoot them if they touched me. They had to distract her while the social worker got me out of the back door before they sprung into action and took her away."

"So why do you think that they'd go after you for Merle?" Grissom inquired.

"I'm not sure. I think if it's anything, it could be trying to 'catch something that got away'. Using the child to pay for the parent's sins. I just don't understand how an entire town could be in on something so cold and calculating and reprehensible."

"Sara, what can you remember about that night?" Nick asked. "From here on in, we're going to have to rely on your memory to get us through. We need to find a suspect before the DA starts pushing charges."

"Not much, I'm afraid," she confessed. "I remember I went to the local tavern. I ran into Merle. That's about it."

"The tavern...didn't we pass that on the way here?" Grissom inquired. Nick nodded.

"We're going to have to make a stop there and at the pharmacy."

"Do you remember how you got back to your place?"

"Yeah. Merle drove."

"Did anyone follow you?"

"Not that I recall, but Gil, I really wasn't looking. I was feeling pretty buzzed by that point. I'd had maybe about two or three drinks. I was going to walk back to the house, but Merle insisted he drive." She thought about it for a minute and then her eyes lit up. "He wanted to talk to me about someting!"

"Did he seem nervous to you at all in any way, Sara?" Nick inquired. "Like somebody was watching him?"

"No. But he was definitely drunk."

An officer made his way over to them. "Ms. Sidle, your visit's over." He shot a scowl at Nick, who returned the glare. Grissom was bewildered. Sara nodded and stood.

"I'll see you guys later." They nodded and watched as Sara made her way back into the prison behind the guard. The men stood and began to make their way back out to the car.

"This is great!" Nick exclaimed. "We can at least start constructing a timeline of Sara's night."

"Yeah...if anybody will let us," Grissom murmured as they climbed into the car. "Where are we going first?"

"I was thinking that while we're working on the timeline of Sara's night, how about we go over to the tavern first? It's before hours, the bartender should be there, and nobody else. We could be able to get something."

"What if he's in on it too? Perhaps the bartender is the one who drugged Sara's drink."

"Who says her drink was drugged?"

"I'm having the feeling that Sara was barely conscious when she got home. Maybe Merle knew she had been drugged and tried to drive her home in case she collapsed on the street."

"Do you think Merle could be paying attention to that?" Nick asked. Grissom nodded.

"When you're in a tavern, you know what to look for. When you frequent it as much as Merle did, I assume, you're going to know. Plus, with police officer's training, it becomes obvious that Sara wasn't just tipsy from two or three drinks. He was probably trying to be the good Samaritan."

"So what? Was Merle's killer waiting at Sara's house, knowing Merle would be there?"

"Maybe he followed them. If Sara was semi-conscious or unconscious, she wouldn't have seen anything. Otherwise, this guy was banking on Merle being the good Samaritan and broke into Sara's house."

"But there were no signs of forced entry," Nick stated. "I don't think a girl as paranoid as Sara would leave her doors unlocked. It's not in her character."

"Whatever the case, something is really wrong here," Grissom stated. "Maybe our suspect already had a key to the Sidle house."


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N: My apologies you guys. I haven't really had the muse to write lately. Massive writers block thanks to a lot of stupid stuff happening. I appreciate all of your readings, and all of your reviews and thank you for making this my first fanfic to ever reach 100+ reviews. You guys are all amazing! Thanks soooo much, Jennie.**_

**Chapter Seventeen**

Catherine Willows was pacing back and forth in Grissom's office, grimacing at the pickled fetal pigs in the jars on the neatly constructed shelves. She loved Gil like a brother, but sometimes she really wondered what the hell was going through his mind when he did these things. She had her cell phone to her ear, a slip of paper in her hand and she was incredibly frustrated. "Come on, Gil, answer the damn phone." It went to his voicemail. "Grissom, it's Catherine, call me back as soon as you get this. I have something huge for your case. It might not be much, but it could be something huge. I had Greg dig it up for us. Please, Gil, let us know how you and Nick are doing and let us know if Sara's okay. It's been a few days." She took a deep breath and hung up the phone.

Hodges appeared at the door. "Still nothing from Gil?"

"Not a damn word," she answered. "Seriously – what's the point of having a cell phone if you don't answer it half the time?" She shook her head. "You got something on my case?" She was working an armed robbery out in Henderson.

"Yeah. We found some traces of plastic and soda in the gun barrel."

"Poor man's silencer," she mused. "We had a case like that awhile ago. The Kleinfelds, this couple who would murder other couples after getting them drunk and taking them up to their rooms. We found them shot, and a pop bottle was used a silencer. Ask Greg about it. We made him scour the area for shot-out bottles."

"Ah, the tedious life of a CSI," Hodges mused. Catherine cocked an eyebrow. Hodges nodded. "I'll go let Warrick know." She nodded and he disappeared. That guy was a total stooge, but in an odd, loveable sort of way. He was the weird guy who randomly danced in the lab and colored the grey in his hair with felt marker.

"Las Vegas brings out the weirdos, I suppose," she murmured, sitting down behind Grissom's desk. Greg appeared in the doorway.

"Have you heard from them?" he asked.

"Nothing," she answered. Greg made his way into the office and sat down across from her.

"What did Grissom say the last time you spoke to him?"

"He said things were weird out there. Like a huge conspiracy. He and Nick are definitely not welcome visitors out there."

"Any word on Sara?"

"She's in prison, and Grissom said she's definitely affected, but he's sure she's putting up a tough exterior."

"What does he expect here, Cath? I mean, he goes running out in the middle of the night to rescue her, but...does he expect her to come back here?"

"I don't know, Greg," she answered. "Grissom's a bloody enigma." Her cell phone began to ring. She checked the caller ID. "Speak of the Devil." She answered the phone. "Good grief, Gil. I've been calling you all day! What's the point of having a cell phone if you never answer?" She put it on speaker phone so Greg could hear too.

"I'm sorry, Catherine. Nick and I have been disposed taking care of some things around here. Did Doc get the things from the house that we sent over?"

"He did. We've got a rush on them to Hodges in trace."

"What do you have for us, Catherine. You said it could be big."

"I've got Greg here with me. He uncovered something in this investigation, and I think he'd be better to explain it to you." She handed the phone to Greg.

"Hey, Grissom. How's Sara?"

"She's doing fine, considering. What's going on?"

"Well, Catherine was saying things are kind of weird over there."

"Weird's not the word," Greg heard Nick say on the other end. Greg nodded.

"Anyway, I called the San Francisco Courts and had them send me over transcripts of The People v. Laura Sidle."

"And?"

"Well, it appears that your murder victim, Merle, happened to be the police officer who managed to get the change of venue for Laura."

"What do you mean?"

"I have it here in writing. He stated she suffered from Battered Wife Syndrome and that she was incapable of remembering that night. He basically was the one that got her off of the hook in Tamales Bay."

"Then why wouldn't they have killed him off sooner? With the way things are out here, it seems like they would have done it earlier," Catherine replied.

"That's not what this is about, Catherine," Grissom replied. "It's not about killing Merle, it's about prosecuting a Sidle. Sara, in essence, is paying for the sins of her father, and the sins of her mother committed as a result of the sins of her father."

"It sounds so messed up out there," Catherine replied.

"You don't even know. We have no jurisdiction out here, so we have the people thinking that we're private investigators."  
"Is anything we gather going to be admissable as a result."

"Probably not, but the people here probably don't know that. We've got to let you go though, Catherine. Nick and I are at the local pharmacy. We're going to get a list of everyone who has had a perscription for Larazapam. We're going to see if we can trace it to whomever was at the bar that night and maybe then we'll figure out who drugged Sara."

"Good luck, guys. Keep us posted a little more than you have been," Catherine replied. Grissom promised to do so and they hung up.

The pharmacy had a hardwood floor with off-white walls. It was nice, organized, the drugs lined up on the shelves. Grissom made his way straight past to a graying man behind the counter. "Hello, perscription refill?"

"No, actually we're here to ask a few questions," Grissom replied. "I'm Gil Grissom, this is Nick Stokes."

"Ah, yes. I was told about you two. You're investigating Merle's death for that Sidle girl, aren't you?" They nodded. He looked around to make sure there was nobody around them and asked. "How can I help you two?"

"We need a list of everyone who has gotten a perscription of Larazapam within the last six months," Nick replied.

"That I can do for you," he replied.

"Wow. You're cooperative," Nick replied, incredulous. The pharmacist laughed.

"This is a weird town, if you ask me. Moved here a few months ago with the wife and kids. Met that Sara girl. Very nice girl. If it helps you, she had a perscription for Larazapam."

"What for?" Grissom asked.

"She received it upon her move here, it says," he told them. "Mental fatigue." He handed them the list. Grissom thanked him for his help and cooperation.

"There's a good chance Sara was drugged with her own supply."

"You'd figure she would mention she was on medication. She doesn't seem to be the type to mix alcohol with medication. She knows better," Grissom insisted. Nick shrugged.

"Look, we have her name on the list. The best thing that we can do is ask her about it. There's no harm. And there's other names on this list. We can check into them and see if they frequented the bar on this night. Just don't get yourself in a knot, Gil. Despite the absence of logic in this town, the evidence will always point us down the right path."

Grissom stared at him oddly. Since when was Nick the even-headed one?


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

Sara lay on her bunk inside her jail cell, staring up blankly at the ceiling. There was so much she wanted to say to Grissom. She just didn't know how.

She had spent so many years chasing him, that when he had finally stopped running, she didn't know what to do. Things had been different with him. He was an enigma, he was quirky, he was just Grissom. He was a simple baseball fan who loved to sit in bed with her and his dog and eat yogurt.

She found herself thinking about the night that they had stayed up together watching the pig wrapped in a blanket. She had brought him a Thermos of coffee and a blanket to fight against the cold. It felt so right taking care of him. It felt right sitting beside him as he sipped coffee, talking to her about entemology and the elements. There were so many signs that he liked her, too, but she was afraid of reading way too much into the simple things like Christmas presents and off-color statements. He thought she was beautiful, and he made her feel that way.

She couldn't stay in the bright lights of Vegas. She needed to come home, and enjoy some sort of a life, but she found more trouble than she would have if she had just stayed in Vegas. But even in her time of trouble, she knew Gil would see her through. And Nick, and the lab. They were the best family she could have ever asked for. She remembered the night Nick was kidnapped, and buried alive. She had been so relieved when she had managed to pinpoint Nick's location on the map, thanks to Grissom's accuracy and intellegence with bugs.

They were a good team. And she never had a doubt in her mind that they would find her when Natalie had kidnapped her. She did everything she could to let them know she was okay once she had escaped from the car. It had been the most harrowing experience of her life, and when her eyes finally fluttered open, the first thing she remembered seeing was Grissom's nametag, followed by his concerned eyes focused on her. She remembered she cried when she saw him in the helicopter with her.

"We're so right for each other," she murmured aloud. After all, how many women would find a marriage proposal during a bee experiment romantic? She smiled at the thought. It was the only way that she was keeping herself occupied in the prison. Thinking of Gil, thinking of the family she had left behind. She wondered how Warrick was doing. She wondered how Catherine and Greg and even that Hodges idiot was doing.

"Sidle! Visitor!"

She sat up to see Grissom, alone. Her face burrowed. "Where's Nick?"

"He's taking care of some other business," he answered, leaving his words vague for the officer standing behind him. Grissom walked into the cell and sat down with Sara as the officer shut the cell and went to take care of other things. He sat down.

"Sara, you didn't tell us that you had a perscription for Larazapam."

"I stopped taking it a month ago," Sara replied. "I didn't need it anymore. I was doing fine, so I didn't bother getting another perscription." She shook her head. "If you're looking for someone who drugged me..."

"Sara, did you finish your last month's perscription?" Grissom asked. She stopped and thought about it for a second.

"I think I didn't take it for the last week," she answered honestly. "Then I took the remainder and...no...I know they're still around the house somewhere. I just couldn't tell you where, Gil."

"We checked your house, and we can't seem to find it. Sara, do you remember anything else about that night?"

She stopped and she thought for a few minutes. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Yes."

Grissom leaned in close to her. "Sara, what do you remember?"

"I remember I was feeling hazy when I got home. I was going to go into the house alone, but Merle was insistent on making sure I was tucked in and taken care of.

"The two of us went into the house and I noticed something was off. Maybe not noticed. Like that sixth sense that something isn't right in the house."

"Like what? Lights on that were off?"

"No, lights were all off...that was what was odd. I always leave a light on when I go out. Merle and I began to make our way upstairs towards the room, and we were grabbed. Both of us. I was already almost out, I can't remember anything. I just remember somebody grabbing me." She shook her head. "I can remember Merle screaming and I got dragged up the stairs." She kept trying to think.

"Don't force it, Sara," he told her. "It'll come to you. So far this is good. We found no forced entry at your house though, so there's a good chance that somebody just walked in."

"It's a small town, Gil. Everyone leaves their front doors open," she answered. Grissom took a deep breath. How they got in became clear.

The familiar banging on the bars told Grissom the visit was over. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "We'll get you out soon, hold tight." She nodded and he stood to his feet, shooting another look at her before leaving.

Sara lay back down on the bunk and began to cry.


	19. Chapter 19

**Nineteen**

Grissom climbed into the car and went to Nick at the Sidle house. He was looking around to see if he could find the Larazapam bottle. They hoped that Sara had just stashed it somewhere.

Grissom took a look in the mirror. He looked haggard, weathered almost. He hadn't shaved in a few days, his eyes were tired. Everyday that she was stuck in that jail cell drove him absolutely crazy. He wanted her out of there, with him. He wanted to remember what it was like to wake up in the morning to see her. He smiled sadly. He remembered when she left. He still woke up, his arm outstretched, looking for Sara, who just wasn't there.

He often laid awake at the bed and breakfast and wondered about Sara. What was going to happen when he finished playing her knight in shining armor? He wanted to take her back to Vegas so badly. If she didn't want to be a CSI, that was fine, he'd support her in everything that she did. But he didn't want to lose her again. He was taking the call as a sign, almost like a preordained destiny that she would call him for help. And he wanted to help her with everything that he had.

He pulled up at the Sidle house and stopped the car. He climbed out. He wanted a drink. He thought about stopping by the bar that night for a drink and to see what he could find. It wasn't like him; but he was off the clock. This was strictly a bonus case and a whiskey on the rocks wasn't going to kill him.

He made his way into the house. "Nicky?"

"Upstairs, Gil!" He made his way up the stairs and went into the bathroom. Nick was crouched down under the cupboard, searching for the pill bottle. Grissom reached into Nick's field kit and grabbed a set of latex gloves.

"Found anything?"

"Not yet. Sara must have been real messed up after she left here. I can't even find Tylenol here, let alone Larazapam."

Grissom nodded. "I'll check her bedroom. Maybe it's in her nightstand or fell under her nightstand."

"Didn't we check in there already?" Nick asked.

"We're not running on a whole lot of sleep, maybe a second time around will give us a fresh eye." Nick nodded and Grissom disappeared into Sara's room.

He noticed the blood stains on the carpet and on the floor. The samples should be ready pretty soon. If the blood was Merle's – and he was certain it was – then it meant that he was dragged up the stairs after Sara. He looked at the nightstand and opened it up. There were just notebooks and things inside. He opened it. A day planner. He opened the next one – poetry. There was nothing but notebooks in the drawer.

He grabbed the nightstand and pulled it back. "Nicky – how's your search going?" Grissom called.

"It's not. How about you?"

"We just need to find the bottle."

"Well, if I don't find it in here, I'm going to go downstairs and take a check in the living room or the kitchen."

Grissom remained silent. There was a pill bottle. "I found a bottle!" he shouted. Nick burst into the room as Grissom picked up the orange bottle. He stared at it. "This is an antidepressant for Laura Sidle. This thing must be from the eighties."

"Is there still pills in the bottle?" Nick asked.

"Not that I see," Grissom replied. "Maybe we can get some trace off it." He handed it to Nick to package and moved the nightstand back to its spot. He stood to his feet. He went to the dresser and opened it. He blushed when he saw some of Sara's unmentionables, but rifled through the drawer in hopes of finding a bottle. He saw a black nightgown and he recognized it. He shut the drawer and checked through the others. There was nothing.

Nick appeared in the doorway. "I can't find anything in there. Bottle wasn' flushed either. So I'm going to check downstairs."

"I'll meet you down there in a few," he replied. The dresser wasn't doing anything either. He decided that it would be a stretch, but he would check the closet. He pulled it open and began rifling through the pockets of her hoodies and jackets, but wasn't finding anything but old notes and receipts. He noticed a leather strap hanging on the edge of the closet and he pulled it down. It was a purse.

He opened it up. His brow furrowed. Damn purses always had so many compartments. He took a deep breath and began to rifle through. He felt something hard in the bottom, but he was in the wrong section. He tried again – wrong section again. He was getting frustrated, so he shook the purse. He heard something move. He finally reached into the right compartment and found the bottle. Prescribed to Sara by a Dr. Addleman. Grissom was curious if it was the guy at the local hospital.

Grissom made his way down the steps. "Nick! I found the bottle. It's still got about a week's worth of pills inside..." He joined Nick's side, trailing off when he saw the gun pointed in both their faces.


	20. Chapter 20

**Twenty**

Grissom took a deep breath as his eyes adjusted in the dark. "My God, Jim, would you put that away?"

Captain Jim Brass took a deep breath and put the gun away. "Sorry," he apologized. "It was dark and I mistook Nick for an intruder." He looked around. "Can you guys turn a light on or something?" Grissom found a lightswitch nearby and flipped it. He couldn't fathom why Nick was even searching for anything in the dark. To say the two men were surprised to see Jim was an understatement.

"What are you doing here, man?" Nick inquired. "Shouldn't you like, still be in Vegas or something?"

"Ecklie sent me out here," Brass explained. "He is chomping at the bit to get both your asses back to Vegas. I'm supposed to help you guys put a rush on everything. He wants you guys back ASAP. Grissom, Ecklie is pushing hard for a suspension here, and I really wouldn't be surprised if he got it. You could be in for a lot of heat when you get back." Grissom nodded. He figured he would catch a little bit of trouble. Ecklie was such a pissant.

"How did you know we were here?" Nick asked. Jim shrugged.

"I didn't," he answered. "I stopped at the gas station and asked for the Sidle place. You boys are lucky you didn't get your asses shot off, traipsing around in the dark like this." They decided to ignore his criticism.

"Where are you staying?" Grissom asked.

"When did you get here?" Nick inquired.

"I got here about an hour ago," Jim replied. "I found a bed and breakfast on the outskirts. Why? Where are you guys?"

"We're in town. Only bed and breakfast for miles." The way Grissom said it sounded like a plug. Brass nodded, a small smirk tugging at his lips. He took a deep breath, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"So does anyone want to brief me on what's going on?"

Grissom took a deep breath. He fought the urge to laugh. Jim and his gun had given him quite a jolt. "Okay, well we found that Sara was drugged with Lorazapam..."

"I know that. I went over what Robbins has. The blood you guys collected was your vic's." They stared at him. "Doc told me to tell you guys since Grissom here doesn't know how to answer his phone." Grissom opted to ignore that remark as well.

"It looks like this case has to do with Sara's mother," Grissom replied. "Merle was an officer who managed to get Laura Sidle off the hook in the murder of Sara's father."

"Twenty-something year-old revenge story?" Jim's face wrinkled in distaste. "That's a pretty big stretch, Gil."

"Well, nobody's being cooperative here, for the most part. Anything I could tell you about this place would be a stretch to others in the real world. We have a list of people who have been prescribed Lorazapam in the last six months and we're hoping that one of them was at the bar the night Merle died."

"Ah, yes, Sara," he replied. "And how is she holding up?"

"Fine, considering," Nick replied. "But you know how Sara is." Jim nodded. He had been just as surprised when Sara left, but he knew better than to pester Grissom about it.

Grissom took a deep breath. "I'm going to head over to the bar and see if I can find out who was there the night everything happened. I'll leave you two to look around." He felt safer leaving Nick when Captain Brass was with him. The guys nodded and he left. When the door closed, Brass turned his attention to Nick.

"He is in huge trouble when he gets back," Brass replied. Nick opened the silverware drawer. He was hoping to find a murder weapon.

"What about me?" Nick inquired. Brass shrugged.

"I think you'll get off easy since Catherine sent you. She's already been reprimanded. Ecklie is making this a full-fledged political hailstorm that he took off in the middle of the night like he did. He's even pushing to have Grissom pulled off as night shift supervisor." Nick was surprised, but he was pretty sure that Ecklie wouldn't get it. Grissom gave the lab credibility as one of the top entemologists in the forensic community.

"I know. It doesn't strike you as Grissom, does it?" Nick inquired, rifling through the knives. "Hey, man, hand me the Luminol." Brass reached into the field kit and grabbed the bottle.

"So, what is Gil expecting here? Is Sara coming back to Vegas?"

"Who knows, man?" Nick replied, spritzing Luminol over the knives. He motioned for Brass to hit the lights, but nothing was happening. He told Brass to hit the lights again. "This entire thing is weird, and this town...it's like a Stephen King novel or something. Just weird." Brass nodded.

"I could tell. The gas station attendant really tensed up when I brought up the Sidle house." He shook his head. "Does it look like she did it?"

Nick shook his head. "Nah. It's a matter of finding evidence to prove it though. Huge cover-up going on. They're looking to keep her in there until she rots." Brass shook his head.

"Poor thing. Leaves for a better life and winds up worse off." Nick nodded.

"I know." He noticed a wooden block stuck with knives. He began to pull them out. "I would just hate to think that a realist like Grissom would get his hopes up on Sara coming back. You remember how he was when she left. I don't think he could handle losing her again." Brass nodded.

Nick sprayed the knives and motioned for Brass to hit the light.

"Bingo. I think we found Merle's murder weapon."


	21. Chapter 21

**_Forgive the short chapter tonight, guys, but I wanted to update before I go to bed. You've all been really patient with my slowness. I'll try to get as much as I can posted within the next few days. Thanks so much. Jennie. _**

**Twenty-One**

Grissom entered the bar. It wasn't very full; the nightly rush hadn't started yet. It worked to an advantage to him. The less people in there, the more likely he'd be able to talk to the bartender.

The bartender spotted him. "Hey there. What can I get you?"

"Some answers," Grissom replied. The bartender nodded.

"You're the guy working on the Sidle case." Grissom sat down on a stool in front of him.

"That I am," he answered, extending his hand. "Gil Grissom."

"Steve Bellcheck." He shook his hand. "So you're Grissom."

"What?"

"Sara became a regular in here about a month ago. She could carry her liquor with the most of them. She would always drink and talk about leaving behind a man named Grissom. I'm assuming that's you." Grissom was stricken dumb for a second. Sara was drinking on a regular basis again, and she was talking about him as she drank.

"Look, Mr. Bellcheck..."

"Steve."

"Steve. We know the night Merle died, both he and Sara were here. We know he gave Sara a ride home, and we know Sara was drugged. So is there anything that you can tell me about the night Merle died?"

"It seemed like a normal night as usual. Sara was drinking, talking about you and her family in Vegas. About you being the fiance she left behind."

"Did anybody buy her a drink?"

"Well, Merle approached her and told her that he wanted to talk to her. They went to his usual table back there." Steve motioned with his hand to a back table. "A guy came up and bought two beers and he stopped and gave one to Sara."

"Do you know who it was?"

"Yeah. It was an old friend of her daddy's. On the police force. Sgt. Peterson." Grissom nodded. If his name showed up on the Lorazapam prescription list, then they definitely had something.

"Then what happened?"

"Sara and Merle continued to talk. I could tell Sara was starting to get a little bit hazy. She wasn't drunk. She didn't have half as much as she could usually have here. But she got up to walk home, and Merle volunteered to drive her. She seemed hesitant, but he led her out because she was barely standing. From there, I can't really tell you what happened."

"I appreciate your help anyway," Grissom replied. "Thank you so much."

"Can I get you a drink? On the house." Grissom shook his head.

"I'll be sure to come in before we leave. But thank you very much for your cooperation." He shook the bartender's hand and walked out. Brass and Nick pulled up. Grissom cocked an eyebrow.

"How'd the search go at the house?"

"We pulled up a few fingerprints, but twenty to one says if we're dealing with law enforcement, then we're going to find Sara's and maybe Merle's. Nothing more. We found a knife. Luminol spray shows that it has blood, testing has determined that it is human. If we can do something about Merle's body and get a blood type then we should be okay."

"I'll go rattle some cages in the morning about exhuming Merle. Worse comes to worse, I'll make an emergency trip to San Francisco and get the order," Brass replied. "One way or another, we'll drag Merle up."

"Get some blood work done on him, too," Grissom replied. "I want to see if he's been drugged as well."

"What did you get?"

"Sgt. Peterson of the Tamales Bay Police Department bought Sara a beer the night Merle was killed. Bartender said by the time Sara left with Merle, she should have been slightly inebriated, but she was barely standing."

"Okay. But by this point getting the bottle is going to be impossible," Nick replied. "So how do we work around that?"

"We look at the pharmacy list of everyone who was given Lorazapam and see if Sgt. Peterson's name shows up on the list. If we get that much, we can probably hold him for questioning." Nick nodded.

"Let's go get dinner. Nick said there's a place by your place." Grissom nodded, and they climbed into the car. Grissom felt his adrenaline starting to surge. They were starting to get somewhere. His only hope was that they could get Sara out of there before things got out of hand.


	22. Chapter 22

_**A/N: Thank you all for making this the most reviewed story I've written. It all means so much. I'll try to get a bit more posted today. There won't be any posts tomorrow because it's my birthday. Big 2-1 lol. I'm getting old. I hope you all enjoy 22, and thank you all so much for following along with the fast, the rapid and the slow. Jennie.**_

**Twenty-Two**

They sat at a back table in the cafe and ordered their dinner. Everyone knew who they were by that point, and any attempt to be inconspicuous as a result was futile. Brass noticed a few people staring. "You guys ruffle that many feathers here?" he inquired as the waitress made her way out of earshot. Grissom shrugged. Nick smirked.

"You have no idea."

"So what do we know?"

"We know Sara got loaded at the bar," Nick replied. "Merle said he wanted to talk to her about something."

"Now, since we know it was Merle's testimony that got Sara's mother off the hook and hospitalized, there's a good chance that Merle probably wanted to talk to Sara about her mother's case," Brass stated. They were trying to keep their voices low enough so that no one would hear.

"Sara was prescribed Larazapam when she arrived her for fatigue," Grissom replied, "but she didn't finish her supply and left it in an old purse in her closet."

"There's a lot of people here that were prescribed Larazapam. Grissom and I obtained a list from the pharmacy and there's at least three pages of names here. That's a lot for a town like this." Nick knew it could be worse; the lists were normally bigger.

"Sara was drugged. More than likely at the bar by this Sgt. Peterson," Grissom replied. "Her blood levels showed therapeutic levels of Larazapam. The bartender said that she had enough to drink to be inebriated lightly, but she was barely standing. Merle had to help her out of the bar."

"So then what happened?"

"He takes Sara home. He's more than likely followed. They get into the house. It's dark. Sara realizes she always leaves a light on. Bam!" Nick exclaimed. "They're attacked."

"So from that point, Sara is taken upstairs to her mother's old bedroom, which she's been using. She's more than likely tied to the bedposts," Grissom replied. Nick smirked and Grissom shot him a look. Their food arrived and Nick's smile only got wider. "Abrasions on her wrists would be consistent, but nothing was found at the scene."

"More than likely collected by the 'Good Old Boys', but I doubt they'll be much help," Nick retorted. Brass smirked.

"I'll deal with them in the morning." The guys nodded and began to eat. "I'll see what I can do about getting autopsy reports from Merle. Worse comes to worse, I'll take the emergency trip to San Fran and get Merle's body exhumed. Have you met his wife?"

"Ex-wife," Grissom replied. "I met with her a few days ago. I'm sure she'll be more than cooperative. She appeared to be with me."

"I'll visit with Sara in the morning," Grissom replied, "and see if there's anything she remembers. She remembered a little bit more the last time I saw her. Maybe this time she'll be onto a little more." The guys nodded.

"What are we going to get this Peterson on? The beer bottle is probably at the dump by now and Lord knows we can't rifle through the dump for one beer bottle. It's like a needle in a haystack." Nick took a deep breath. "What we'll have is just assumptions at best."

"Well, we could always bluff," Brass replied. "It worked for Manson's prosecutors." Grissom thought about that for a minute. He'd be willing to do anything to get Sara out. "I'll go in tomorrow and see what we can do. I've got a few days before Ecklie will become a pain in my ass anyway."

Grissom nodded. He knew he was in for a thorough chew-out when he returned to Las Vegas for running away. But if she had called him in Timbuktu and begged for help, he would have been on the first plane out, and still incurring the wrath of Conrad Ecklie.

He took a bite of food. "Tell me, Nicky, do we have Sgt. Peterson's name on the list."

Nick began to scour through. "You think the police force was looking to set Sara up here?" Brass asked. Grissom rolled his eyes.

"Here? Just about anything's possible." Nick shook his head.

"There's only one Peterson and it might not be our guy," he told Grissom. "Chris Peterson."

"We'll go rattle some cages in the morning. Grissom, you can visit with Sara and see what information you can get out of her. Nick can go talk to the Medical Examiner and I'll go talk to the police. I'm sure if I flash my badge and utter a few threats I can get some information out."

Grissom nodded. He wondered how Sara was doing in her cell. She had dropped some weight since he had last seen her, which scared him. She was a small girl already. He thought about her spending nights alone in the jail cell hoping and praying for Grissom to save her from the nightmare she was suddenly entrapped in.

He suddenly lost his appetite.


	23. Chapter 23

_**A/N: I want to say thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. This is easily the most reviewed story I've written since I started posting fanfics. Thank you all so much for your great reviews. **_

**Twenty-Three**

Sara lay in her bunk, watching the sunlight fade behind the horizon, watching the sky fade into that deep cobalt color. She couldn't help but watch the sky slowly fade away; she didn't really have anything left. Since she had been locked away, she found herself laying in bed every night, thinking about the good times she had with Grissom. It was all she had left when the going got tough.

There was so much she wished she could remember about that night. She had been trying to remember what happened since her last meeting with Grissom, but nothing was coming to fruition. She was going insane trying to remember. She remembered the bar, she could vaguely remember getting a beer from Sgt. Peterson, who was, as he proclaimed "a friend of her daddy's." Merle seemed kind of put off by Sgt. Peterson's presence. It was shortly after that that he had left with her. By that point she remembered that she could barely walk a straight line. Merle was even supporting her on the way out.

She remembered bringing up Grissom on the ride back to her house. She had said he was her fiance. Merle asked why she had left him. She had told him she had her own answers that she needed to find. She needed to break away from the darkness that had encased her for so long. Merle smiled and told her Grissom seemed like a good man; understanding to just let her go do what she needed to. Sara hadn't mentioned that she hadn't given him a choice in the matter. She was silent for the rest of the trip home.

They arrived back at Sara's. He had said that he wanted to talk to her about her father's case. About her mother, about the affair he had had with Sara's mother and how it affected the case against her.

She had walked into the house and even in her haze had realized that all the lights were off. Even with her lightheaded feeling she knew something was different. She had called to Merle and said something was wrong.

That's when they were both grabbed. It was from behind, so Sara was almost certain they came from the coat closet. She didn't get to see anybody in the dark. She was dragged up the stairs while Merle...

She sat upright. She remembered what had happened. She wondered if Grissom had covered it yet. She went to her book. Since they wouldn't give her a notepad, she took to writing in the back of one of her books. She began to jot things down quickly. The more she could remember, the better it would be for her the next time that she saw Grissom.

Grissom sat up in bed, watching poker on the television set. Poker always relieved his stress. He could feel a migraine coming on. Things were going to be hectic in Vegas when he returned.

His phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was Catherine. With a deep breath, he answered the phone. "Grissom."

"Gil, did Jim make it out there?"

"Yeah, he did," Grissom replied.

"Oh, good. Ecklie's been on my ass all day about it."

"How bad is it going to be when I get back?"

"I'll be surprised if Ecklie doesn't put you up with the Board," Catherine replied. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it. He's like a chihuahua. He just likes to make noise. Anyway, the group's got your back."

"That's good to know," Grissom replied.

"Gil...how are you holding up with everything going on?"

"Honest truth? I'm exhausted," Grissom told her. If there was anybody on the team he confided in, it was Catherine. "I've been getting sleep, but for the life of me, I can't remember sleeping in the last few days. Everywhere I go, I'm thinking about Sara."

"How is she holding up?"

"She was in pretty rough shape when I got here, but I think she's keeping herself pretty pulled together, Cath."

She took a deep breath. "What are you expecting here, Gil?"

Grissom thought about it. "You know, Cath, I'm not even sure," he admitted. "I don't want to get my hopes up, but...I just couldn't leave her to rot in a jail cell."

"Just be careful, all right, Grissom? I'd hate to think of anything happening to you out there."

"We'll be fine."

"I'll let you go, Gil. I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

"I'm fine, Catherine. Let the team know we're all right."

"Will do. Take it easy, Gil."

"See you soon, Cath." He hung up the phone and went back to watching poker. His mind was still on Sara.


	24. Chapter 24

**Twenty-Four**

"Sidle! Visitor!"

Sara looked up to see Grissom standing behind the guard. He offered her a slight smile. Her face instantly lit up. "Gil!" She jumped to her feet and rushed over to him, giving him a hug. "I remembered a few things last night. I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget."

"That's great," Grissom replied, leading her over to her bed. They sat down. Her hand was in his. "What do you remember?"

"I remember at the bar, I got a beer from..."

"Sgt. Peterson," Grissom replied. "I spoke with the bartender yesterday. He said that you seemed as though you had been drugged when you left the bar."

Sara seemed startled by the revelation. "That might make sense. I remember that it had just hit me. It was so quick. It had made me kind of suspicious of Merle. I was getting ready to leave, and Merle told me there was no chance he would let me leave by myself in my condition. He looked a little bit put off by Sgt. Peterson. I was a bit afraid to leave with him, but I wasn't in the greatest condition. Sgt. Peterson said he was a friend of my father's. It wasn't long after I had the beer he got me that I left."

"Then what?"

"We drove back to the house. And I remember I walked into the house and realized that all the lights were off. I went to say something to Merle about that, but we were grabbed. They were more than likely hiding in the coat closet. I can't think of anywhere else because we were in the front area and they came from behind." Grissom made note of that. There was a good chance they'd find fingerprints. Hoping that the guys didn't wear gloves or had forgotten to wipe that down.

"Then what happened, Sara? Did you get a look at them?"

Sara shook her head. "It was dark. But they dragged me up the stairs and they dragged Merle into the kitchen. That's what I remember before I passed out."

Grissom nodded. "That would make sense somewhat. Nick found a knife in the kitchen. Luminol showed dried blood. He ran the tests and saw it was human. Good chance it was Merle's."

"It would probably mean that his body in my bedroom was a secondary scene," Sara replied. "I'll bet you he was killed in the kitchen and dragged up to the bedroom."

"It still doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Grissom replied. "Why would they take you upstairs and him downstairs?"

"Maybe they were cross-wired in communication. It doesn't seem to make sense either. But nothing here makes a lot of sense."

"Do you remember what they tied you to the bed with?" Grissom asked. Sara shook her head.

"No. It was off by the time I woke up. It must have been to make sure I didn't move too soon." Sara shook her head.

"Sara...what's Sgt. Peterson's first name?" She looked at him and thought about it for a second.

"Mike. That's what he told me at the bar."

"Damn." He took a deep breath. "Sara, do you know a Chris Peterson?"

"Yeah. That would be his son. He works for the precinct, too. He was the guy that led you in here."

"Are you serious?" he asked. Sara nodded.

"Did you want to talk to him?" Grissom shook his head. For the moment, he was there with Sara, and there was no one else she wanted to be with at that second. He was there to help her remember.

"Brass is going to rattle some cages. We should be able to get you out of here pretty soon, Sara." She nodded.

"Where's Nick?"

"Nick is talking to the coroner. We're going to see if we can get the reports on Merle's body. If that doesn't work and we can't get them to cooperate, then Brass said that he's going to run out to San Fran and get an exhumation order."

She nodded. "Grissom, why is this happening?"

"I can't tell you, Sara," he said after a long period of silence. "Just know that we'll get you out."

She nodded. "Thank you for coming to help me. I know that you didn't have to be here."

"Sara," he said, stroking a strand of hair out of her face, "I wouldn't ever leave you in a situation like this." She nodded.

"I appreciate everything you guys have done. I can only imagine what Ecklie's going to say when you guys get back." Grissom smirked at the thought. Ecklie was a pain.

"I'll be in a bit of trouble," Grissom conceded. "But I don't regret getting out here for a second."

There was a loud bang on the door. "Time's up." The guy looked angry. Grissom looked at Sara and kissed her forehead.

"I'll be back," he assured her. "And we'll get you out of here."

Sara nodded. "Grissom?"

He turned to her. "Yeah?" She smiled sadly at him, tucking a strand of hair nervously behind her ear.

"I want to go home."


	25. Chapter 25

**Twenty-Five**

Dr. Arielle Harper was the Chief Medical Examiner. A middle-aged woman with red hair tied back in a tight ponytail and piercing green eyes, she stared Nick up and down as though she didn't know what to make of him. "I'm Nick Stokes," he told her, extending his hand to her.

"Arielle Harper," she replied, shaking his hand. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to look over the autopsy reports for Merle."

"You must be one of those boys working for the Sidle girl," Arielle replied. She made her way over to her desk.

"That would be us." Arielle shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but we can't give out that kind of information. You're not in our jurisdiction." Her tone became cold, curt. Nick took a deep breath.

"Look, Dr. Harper, you can either give us a hand and show us the results of your findings, or my friend, Captain Jim Brass, can go to San Francisco and get an emergency exhumation order on the grounds of gross incompetence," Nick threatened. "It's your choice."

She stopped for a few minutes and scowled. Nick knew he had struck a nerve. He was inwardly gloating. Arielle led him to her files.

"I could get in a lot of trouble for this, Mr. Stokes..."

"Please. Nick."

She scowled again. "Nick." She reached for his files. "Things are a little messed up around here."

"Tell me about it," Nick replied. "We're trying to get your suspect out of here."

"She's not really a suspect," Arielle replied. "There's no possible way that she did Merle in."

"How do you know?" he asked as she handed him the file.

"We did the bloodwork on her at the hospital. There was no way she could have ingested that much Larazapam and killed Merle. It was a miracle the girl could even walk."

"Well, our investigation found that Sara was drugged at the bar and was assisted home. She's remembering bits and pieces now."

"Look, I'm not supposed to say anything. And I could be in huge trouble here," she told him, tightening her ponytail a little more, "but they were hoping to catch a Sidle. The police department have been chomping at the bit to avenge their good old boy."

"Sara's father?"

She nodded. "I remember when it happened. I had just moved here. I could hear the whispers. Product of a hippie lifestyle, married too youg. That Sara...she was a beautiful young girl. My first call when I became CMO was to the Sidle house the night Sara's mother killed her father."

"Is that right?" Nick replied, reading the findings. The cause of death for Merle had been an incision of the carotid artery. "Wait one second." He handed her the file and rushed out to his car. He grabbed the knife from a bag and brought it into the office. "We found this cleaned up and put back in a knife holder at the Sidle house. Luminol spray shows blood. Test shows human blood. Can I get you to run whatever we can get off of this against Merle's blood and see if we have a match?"

She nodded. "I can see what I can do."

"So, Arielle, what happened the night Merle died? If everyone knows that Sara's innocent, why isn't there an uproar to get her free?"

"Because most of the people on the case are the ones looking to nail her for her the actions of her parents. Otherwise, everyone else is too young to remember."

"Have you told them it's not right to do this?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Sgt. Peterson threatened to have me transferred out of the Bay area." A low whistle escaped Nick's lips. He was starting to harbor a strong dislike for this Sgt. Peterson.

"How are we going to get Sara out of here?" Nick asked. Arielle shrugged.

"Thanks to you and your two friends, they know that they're grasping at straws. They're pretty desperate. Their entire case is on its last legs, all you guys need to do is just kick them out."

Nick nodded. His cell phone rang. He quickly fumbled through his pockets and answered it. "Stokes." He listened for a few minutes. "I'll go do that, and I'll meet you at the police station." He hung up the phone. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. "This is my cell number. It's long distance, since it's a Vegas number. The second you get the results of the bloodwork, you call me." She nodded and Nick bolted out of the doors and towards his car.

He could feel it. They were rounding third base and heading for home.


	26. Chapter 26

**Twenty-Six**

Mike and Chris Peterson sat at a table in the interrogation room. They had been in there for hours. They were refusing to answer the questions that Jim and Grissom kept asking them. They were seated together, Mike defiant, Chris a little nervous. Jim and Grissom were standing against the door. They were scowling at the two men from Las Vegas, who were glaring back just as defiantly at the officers. Grissom had a strong feeling that this was it. That within the next few hours, Sara would be set free, and he'd be on his way back to Las Vegas with her. She wanted to go home. This wasn't her home anymore; she knew it now. Her home was with Grissom. They knew there was no other person for each other.

"You're really pushing your boundaries here, boys," Mike snapped. "You're out of your jurisdiction here."

"That may be," Brass replied matter-of-factly, "but all it will take is for me to go to the nearest jurisdiction and prove gross incompetence. And it won't be that hard to do thanks to all the evidence my boys picked up." His face contorted into a snarl. "There's no way you guys will be able to prove you did anything by the book." The thought of Sara's rights being violated so badly disgusted him.

"Do you think any of it will be admissable?" Chris asked. His tone was a little nervous, but Grissom and Brass knew walking into the meeting that they couldn't be sympathetic to either of them. Not after everything they had put Sara through.

"I think any judge with a conscience would know what you boys are doing is wrong," Grissom replied, sitting down across from them. "Look, guys, we're not looking to throw you guys in the slammer. We want answers and we want Sara out of here. Plain and simple."

"Sara killed Merle," Mike insisted. It was a desperate statement to sway their judgment and it didn't by any stretch.

The doors opened and Nick walked into the room. He was holding the bagged knife and a bag with two ropes in his hand and had a smile on his face. Grissom turned and noticed the smile.

"Nick. What do you have?"

"Well, I did what you asked, Gris, and I went back to the house. Spray for Luminol shows that the kitchen floor was coated in blood. I had Dr. Harper run a test on what I found on both the knife and the floor and the blood belonged to Merle."

"So? She killed him in the kitchen," Mike snapped. Nick laughed.

"The abrasions on her wrists say otherwise. The reason why I'm so late was I had to run to the nearest courthouse. With the evidence Grissom and I collected, we were able to get a warrant to search your premises. I went with Captain Christian Fox."

"You can't do that."

"I can, and I did," Nick replied, his tone cold. "Your wife was cooperative when we showed her the warrant. We found a bottle of Larazapam prescribed to Chris and we found these ropes. I'm almost certain that Dr. Harper will find Sara's epithelials on the ropes."

"What else did you find, Nick?" Brass inquired.

"Well, Dr. Harper lifted fingerprints that we matched to Chris Peterson," he said. He looked at Chris and laughed. "For a law enforcement official, you sure are an idiot."

"So I touched a knife. I was on the scene."

"We also found your fingerprints on the inside of the coat closet. Did you even think to wear gloves, man? You left traces all over the house."

"Here's what we think happened," Grissom said, leaning back a little in his chair. "You find out Sara came back. You guys are still a little upset about what happened with Sara's mother as a result of Merle's testimony..."

"After all," Brass interjected, "it was his testimony that got Sara's mother off the hook."

"So you boys start plotting," Nick stated, "You guys figured if you couldn't get Sara's mother, what's the next best thing? Her daughter."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Mike snapped.

"That's what I thought at first, too," Grissom replied. "But you find out that Sara frequents the bar every night. So you go. You find her meeting with Merle. So you get a beer, and while nobody's staring, you slip in enough of your son's medication to medicate a horse."

"Dr. Harper states that with the amount in her system, it was a miracle Sara was still standing," Nick replied.

"So, it starts to hit Sara. Sara thinks she's been drugged by Merle or something. She gets up to leave, he notices she's not moving in a straight line and offers to take her home."

"This is where you guys messed up," Grissom replied. "Sara, no matter what happens, when she goes out, she leaves at least one light on so she can see when she gets home. It shows carelessness. You boys premeditated this entire situation, yet you failed to monitor her habits. You made yourselves known."

"Sara – even drugged – knows that something is up. But before she can do anything to protect herself or Merle, you and your father bolt out of the closet and grab each of them. Chris, since you look bigger, you probably grabbed Merle. Mike, you grabbed Sara, and dragged her up the stairs when she tried to go for Merle."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it?" Nick asked. "We'll probably get your epithelials off of the ropes as well," Nick replied. "Look, Sargeant, with all due respect, this is a losing battle. You guys messed up this entire investigation."

"Your only saving grace was that you were going to bluff to Sara until she confessed," Brass repied. "You hoped that if you could convince her she killed him while she was under the influence of the drugs, that you could prosecute her and nail her for what Laura Sidle did to one of 'your boys'."

"What you didn't count on was Sara calling us," Nick replied. "Sara is like family to us and when she calls, we come running. No ifs, ands or buts."

"So why Sara? You guys don't think that she isn't affected by the death of her father? That she hasn't suffered in foster home after foster home? What did she do to deserve paying for what her mother did?" Grissom could feel his pulse rising. He was getting irritated.

"So why hasn't Sara been put to trial yet?" Brass inquired. "She has the right to at least an arraignment and yet you boys have kept her locked here. Her rights have been violated and if we were to go to a court right now, they'd spring Sara like that."

Mike took a deep breath. The last legs of this case were wobbling for them. "You don't know what it's like. You boys live in a big city. You don't know what it's like to lose one of your boys."

"Do you even listen to yourself talk?" Brass asked, incredulous. "We're in the same field. We lose boys all the time."

"The only thing in this business you have is your integrity, and you boys disregarded it for some perverted reason that I doubt you even understand," Nick replied.

"You boys are a disgrace to the badge," Brass snapped. "I've never seen such incompetence on a case."

The guys listened. "So what are you going to do with us?"

"I called Internal Affairs on the way here," Nick revealed. "They'll be here to deal with this place in the morning."

Grissom realized he had them over a barrel and he zoomed in for the kill. "What we want is Sara released. I'll take her out of this place, but you boys owe her an apology."

Mike took a deep breath and handed the keys to Grissom. "So how did you figure it out?" he asked.

Grissom took the keys and stood to his feet. He looked at Mike and shrugged. "I know Sara."


	27. Chapter 27

**Twenty-Seven**

She lay alone on the bed and wondered just how much longer she could take the nights alone in her cell. Away from civilization. With angry police officers who badgered her and belittled her. There was a clang on the bars. Sitting up and turning her head, Sara's eyes lit up when she saw Grissom on the other side of the cell. Visiting hours were over, so she knew something big had happened. He held up the keys for her to see and she burst into tears, a smile crossing her face. Anxious to get to her, he quickly opened the cell and she ran into his awaiting arms, holding onto him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. He stroked her hair.

"We got them, Sara. You're free."

She hugged him tighter. "Thank you." Her voice was a whisper. He could feel her hot tears against his neck. He pulled away from her and looked her in the eyes.

"You'll need to stay here till tomorrow. We'll be here with you. Nick called IA on these guys and they'll be here in the morning to take statements. After that, we'll head back to Vegas. Are you sure that's what you want, Sara?"

She looked into his eyes and nodded. He smiled. "We'll take you back to the house and get you packed. Sgt. Peterson is gathering your personal effects right now." She nodded and with a protective hand on her spine, he led her out of her jail cell. Sara felt a wave of relief rush over her. She was finally free. And with Grissom.

She gathered her things from Sgt. Peterson, who offered a lame attempt at an apology. Sara surprised everyone by just nodding and walking away. The fight in her had vanished at the moment. She was exhausted; void of any energy after the last few weeks of her life. Brass and Nick were waiting outside for her. They smiled and applauded. Sara cried.

"Thanks, guys," she said, her voice cracking, "I owe you guys so much."

"Come on, girl," Brass replied, "we're taking you for dinner. Get you some decent food." She laughed and they made their way down the stairs. The tears were still flowing down her face as she got into the passenger's seat of Grissom's car. They were going to go to the cafe.

Everyone was staring at them as they made their way in with Sara. They had stopped off at her house first so she could change out of her jumpsuit. She had thrown on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, tying her hair back in a ponytail. It had felt amazing to be back in her own clothing. Grissom spotted Annie in there. She stood to her feet and approached them.

"Sara Sidle?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm Annie. Merle's wife." Sara's face softened, a sad smile crossing her face.

"I'm so sorry."

"One of their own," she replied. "I'm glad your friend here got you free."

"Same here," Sara replied. Grissom's cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID.

"Who's that?" Nick asked.

"Proctologist."

"Ecklie?" Brass inquired. Grissom nodded.

"Bingo." Nick and Sara exchanged glances, a wide smile pulling at their faces. They invited Annie to join them for dinner and took a seat at the back of the restaurant.

The dinner was peaceful. It was like they hadn't skipped a beat, talking about cases and what was happening in Las Vegas. Sara realized how much she missed everyone. When she had left, it was as though she had fractured the family. She realized that in her search for answers, she had walked away from a group of people who had become her family.

At the end of the night, when Annie and Brass branched off to their homes and hotels, Grissom decided that Sara was going to stay with him. He wasn't about to allow her to stay at the crime scene, and give her the chance to remember anything more of what had happened to her in the last few weeks. He took her back to the house to pack while Nick went back to the bed and breakfast. Grissom knew he was going to have to face Ecklie eventually, but he decided to leave it alone until he got back to Vegas. He shut off his cell phone. If Catherine wanted information so badly, she could call Nick. Right now was about him and Sara. It was about enjoying Sara's first night of freedom with her.

She packed her things and they went back to the Bed and Breakfast. Sara didn't realize how exhausted she was until she spotted the freshly made bed in the room. She figured it was more comfortable than anything she had slept on in the last few weeks. Grissom went to the local store to get some snacks while Sara got herself ready for bed. By the time Grissom got back, she was in bed with poker on the television set. Grissom smiled and tossed a yogurt pack at her. She pulled one out of the packet and Grissom retrieved spoons. He sat down beside her on the bed and she handed him a yogurt.

"This all feels so strange," she said.

"What?"

"This. The case, being here, being with you." She looked up at him and smiled. He would have draped an arm around her, but he couldn't figure out how to eat his yogurt otherwise. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence, watching poker and eating yogurt. It felt like old times. And neither of them would have traded it in for anything in the world.


	28. Epilogue

_**A/N: This is it! I know it's short, but I want to say thank you all so much for making this the most reviewed story I have ever written. It means a lot. I plan to start a new CSI story soon, but I'm trying to finish off a few stories first. Thank you all so much. **_

**Epilogue**

Internal Affairs didn't take very long with Sara, Grissom, Nick and Brass. They gave them all the information they could and provided numbers for the IA investigators, citing that they had to get back to Las Vegas. Grissom was already in enough trouble as it was. Catherine had called Nick, frustrated at Grissom, that morning and Ecklie was barking louder than ever. Nick started out first for Las Vegas, hoping to make it back in time for his shift, followed by Brass, who gave Sara a quick congratulations before climbing in his car and making the drive back to Nevada. Grissom and Sara left last, when her statement had been given. She knew that Grissom was going to be in big trouble for coming to her rescue, but he didn't seem to worried. She felt at ease being back with him. Everything felt as though it had fallen into place again, and it had given her a sense of relief.  
She knew within the next few months she would have to go back and testify in hearings against the police department. She was even looking into filing a lawsuit. She definitely suffered from a miscarriage of justice and she knew suing them would remind them that it was a hefty price to pay to compromise evidence. She remembered why she went into the criminal justice field. She began to contemplate working in the DA's office. She loved fighting for justice; but living her life in an occupation shrouded with death was just too much for her.

Everyone was happy to see Sara when she got back. Even Ecklie had played nice. She had explained the situation to Ecklie and pleaded with him to take it easy on Grissom. "It was my fault," Sara told him, "I called and I begged for him to come help me. I didn't know who else to call." Ecklie had scowled, and had informed Grissom that he had already taken the matter to the board with Grissom absent. His excuse had been that he was unsure of Grissom's return date.

"And...?" Sara inquired. She clutched Grissom's hand to support him. Grissom didn't appear nervous in the slightest. He looked more annoyed by Ecklie's presence.

"Well, you're one of our top guys," Ecklie said. "They're going to suspend you for a couple weeks. Then you can come back and continue. Until then, Catherine is going to take over your duties." Grissom nodded. Ecklie realized his welcome had been worn out and he bowed his head at Sara. "Welcome back to Vegas, Sidle. We all missed you."

Sara nodded and they watched as he walked down the hall. Grissom took a deep breath. "For a few minutes I thought you were going to get fired," Sara told him. Grissom shook his head.

"If it hasn't happened by now, I doubt it's going to happen," he told her. They laughed. "I could use a vacation though."

The team crowded around them. "That was a lot less painful than I thought it would be," Catherine replied. Grissom nodded.

"Tell me about it," Grissom replied, an incredulous expression crossing his face. "You going to be able to take care of everything for the next few weeks?"

"I did fine while you were gone," Catherine replied. Grissom smiled.

"Good. I'm going to go enjoy my suspension. I could use a vacation." Sara laughed. Bidding the team goodbye, Grissom and Sara left the Lab, hand-in-hand.

She finally felt at home.


End file.
